Exclusive content from The Reversion for paid subscribers: Every other week—I will share a post (like the one below) that contains a compilation of short form research notes and a broader range of learnings I’ve noted in my memex. My goal is that these weekly digests can be read in three minutes or less.
Hello friends, I hope you had a blessed Nativity. It has been a few weeks since I’ve posted a memory dump, and for that I apologize. I have instead published a few articles during that time, which at least fills my goal of publishing content here at least once a week. Let’s dive in.
A note from Fr. Josiah Trenham’s demonology lectures
Why study demonology?
It is part of Orthodox catechesis
It is taught in the Bible a great deal, and we are instructed to learn Scripture
We are in constant spiritual warfare and must know our enemy
It will help us understand the extent of Christ’s sacrifice
The demons came out in full force before and during the incarnation. Throughout the entirety of Christ’s time walking the earth, there is constant conflict with Satan and his demons
The devil tempted Joseph the betrothed to break off his betrothal with the Theotokos
Herod’s demonic massacre of the innocent male children under 2
Demon possessed people were so screaming in terror when Christ walked the earth, to the point where travelers would navigate their journeys around Legion and other demoniacs
The devil tempted Christ in the desert
The two ways Satan tries to conquer us:
Violence and persecution
Lust and seduction
As St Jude wrote, even the Archangel Michael appealed to the Lord to intercede against Satan.
“Also many of those who were now believers came, confessing and divulging their practices. And a number of those who had practiced magic arts brought their books together and burned them in the sight of all. And they counted the value of them and found it came to fifty thousand pieces of silver.” (Acts 19:18–19 ESV)
The total value of these books as it equates to todays currency is roughly $6 million, so it was an immense amount of literature. Ephesus would then become a depository of holy writings that held manuscripts.
*Article expounding upon this in the works
A note about my ethical concern of the AI revolution
I am not concerned about AI technology itself. It is with the likelihood that policymakers and the public in general will become heavily reliant upon it to acquire information they think is unbiased. Since major AI companies will operate with the same values as the current cultural trends, they will require constant human manipulation to maintain their bias.
ChatGPT already exhibits a set of values, expressing pro-abortion and LGBT sentiments. The OpenAI developers have also censored certain subjects and prompts. It is irrelevant which side of the moral divide of the west you stand on. An AI powered society, with a value set that reflects the bias of its creators, can easily be used to steer the population in whatever direction its creators desire it to go through, spreading through the influence on those who use it.
It is not the technology I am concerned about. It can be just as useful in the right hands as it can be dangerous in the wrong hands.