Dear Commons Community,

I read the book, Christianity: An Ancient Egyptian Religion by Ahmed Osman over the summer but was tardy in posting about it on this blog.  It is a provocative book first published in 1998,  that argues that many foundational elements of Christianity are deeply rooted in ancient Egyptian religious traditions rather than exclusively emerging from Judaea. Osman draws comparisons between Old Testament narratives and Egyptian history, suggesting that prominent biblical figures like Moses and Joshua correspond to Egyptian historical personas. He further claims that key Christian doctrines—including monotheism, the Trinity, the virgin birth, and concepts of life after death—are Egyptian in origin.

The book also contends that early Christianity functioned as an Egyptian mystery religion until its suppression by Roman authorities in the 4th century. Osman highlights how the Roman destruction of the Alexandrian library in 391 AD erased much evidence of Christianity’s Egyptian foundations, as part of the Roman effort to recast Christianity as a Judaean religion to consolidate political power​.

Osman’s work has been criticized by some and praised by others. I found some of Osman’s explanations a stretch.

Below is a review by Colin O’Shea that appeared in goodreads and a response from a reader.

Tony

————————————————-

goodreads

Colin O’Shea

March 25, 2021

Christianity: An Ancient Egyptian Religion by Ahmed Osman Contends that the roots of Christian belief come not from Judaea but from Egypt.

• Shows that the Romans fabricated their own version of Christianity and burned the Alexandrian library as a way of maintaining political power

• Builds on the arguments of the author’s previous books The Hebrew Pharaohs of Egypt, Moses and Akhenaten, and Jesus in the House of the Pharaohs

In An Ancient Egyptian Religion author Ahmed Osman contends that the roots of Christian belief spring not from Judaea but from Egypt. He compares the chronology of the Old Testament and its factual content with ancient Egyptian records to show that the major characters of the Hebrew scriptures–including Solomon, David, Moses, and Joshua–are based on Egyptian historical figures. He further suggests that not only were these personalities and the stories associated with them cultivated on the banks of the Nile, but the major tenets of Christian belief–the One God, the Trinity, the hierarchy of heaven, life after death, and the virgin birth–are all Egyptian in origin. He likewise provides a convincing argument that Jesus himself came out of Egypt.

With the help of modern archaeological findings, Osman shows that Christianity survived as an Egyptian mystery cult until the fourth century A.D., when the Romans embarked on a mission of suppression and persecution. In A.D. 391 the Roman-appointed Bishop Theophilus led a mob into the Serapeum quarter of Alexandria and burned the Alexandrian library, destroying all records of the true Egyptian roots of Christianity. The Romans’ version of Christianity, manufactured to maintain political power, claimed that Christianity originated in Judaea. In An Ancient Egyptian Religion Osman restores Egypt to its rightful place in the history of Christianity.

—————————————————————–

Here are comments from one of the readers of the goodreads review.

This book was elucidating on some aspects of the historicity of biblical stories and characters, and offers an engaging well-researched opinion on the significance of the Egyptian Amarna Dynasty and its theological reformation in shaping the early religious beliefs and writings of the Israelites who absconded from Egypt, and subsequently the New Testament Gospels (they being, its claimed, a reiteration of an ancient tradition). This last point undermines the idea of a 1st century historical Jesus figure being responsible for the Christian religion and basically shifts the onus to another time and place entirely, that is Egypt of the fourteenth millennium BC. It also suggests a deep connection between that period’s ruling dynasty and the Isrealites, that ended shortly after the death of Tutankhamun with a military coup and the ascension of a new dynasty, eviscerating the spiritual legacy of the previous dynastic mono-theist “heretics”. I’m fairly obsessed with learning about the roots of Christianity and religion in general, as well as all things ancient Egyptian, and this book didn’t disappoint.

Next on my list in this regard is a book which also pertains to the nonfactual historicity of the Jesus story, and actually provides evidence that the New testament was a codification and reiteration of a Messianic tradition in writing by a Roman elite who wished to quell and satiate a Jewish revolt in the 1st century by proffering them a peaceful “turn the other cheek” type savior, thus saving themselves the hassle of constant uprisings, and providing them with a mechanism of control that ended up being much more powerful than violent force. It’s called “Caesar’s Messiah – Joseph Atwill”. If true, that would have to be an example of the most effective propaganda ever created.

And of course, an historical Jesus isn’t really required for the validity of a positive spiritual message, as Osman’s book also contends; that there is a spiritual aspect of Christ that is distinct from any historical claims to truth, this being the underlying spiritual teaching passed down for centuries before being co-opted (and possibly partly created) by the Roman empire. In this regards, I suggest investigation of the Gnostic christian tradition, which provides a literature apparently untouched by ancient authoritarian influence due to being hidden when the authorities were systematically destroying the physical vestiges of rival ideologies, as all authoritarian states/ideologies have done and do. I’m referring to the Nag Hammadi texts, and the Judeo-Christian Essenes’ Dead Sea Scrolls.

John McWhorter

Dear Commons Community,

John McWhorter, a linguistics professor at Columbia University, and an opinion writer for The New York Times had an essay yesterday entitled, “Cleopatra Is Not Our Mother”. His theme is that Black Americans need to let go of the myth that we have a common Egyptian heritage.  Here  is an excerpt:

“I have always found something problematic about this focus on ancient Egypt as a historical precursor to American Blackness. I’m going to step aside from the controversies over just what color the ancient Egyptians were. The simple fact is that Black Americans are not on the whole their descendants. They are the descendants of all of Africa, a vast and endlessly varied continent. Its peoples have warred with and until not so very long ago even enslaved one another, as rampantly as humans worldwide always have. It is home to over 2,000 languages — almost every third language in the world. Preferring and massaging the single halcyon dream of ancient Egypt misses all of that rich diversity, misreading the historical record and depriving us of the true breadth of our heritage.

Most likely not a single enslaved Black person was brought to America from Cairo or Alexandria. They were brought to America from the West African coast, from what is now Senegal down to Angola. Senegal alone is over 3,000 miles across a desert to the southwest of Cairo as the crow flies — about as far as New York City is from Anchorage or Dublin. Black America tracing itself to Egypt makes as much historical sense as would Czechs deciding to celebrate St. Patrick’s Day, seek out first editions of James Joyce and favor tartans as an expression of being European.”

McWhorten makes a good argument. 

His entire essay can be read below.

Tony

——————————————————

The New York Times

Cleopatra is not our mother!

By John McWhorter

Opinion Writer

Since the 19th century, a strain in Black American culture has claimed ancient Egypt as ancestor and inspiration. A fascination with that long-ago land has permeated Black art deeply enough to seem like one of its very foundations. In the early 20th century, the emblem of the N.A.A.C.P. house organ, “The Crisis,” looked like a sphinx, and many covers featured beautiful Egyptian motifs. In the 1990s, many thinkers warmly embraced the book “Black Athena” by the historian Martin Bernal, which made the claim — since rather roundly debunked — that the ancient Greeks had stolen much of the glory of their culture from “Black” Egypt. So strong has this current of thought been that it fills an exhibition currently on view at the Metropolitan Museum of Art titled “Flight Into Egypt: Black Artists and Ancient Egypt, 1876-Now.”

Beautiful work, make no mistake. But I have always found something problematic about this focus on ancient Egypt as a historical precursor to American Blackness. I’m going to step aside from the controversies over just what color the ancient Egyptians were. The simple fact is that Black Americans are not on the whole their descendants. They are the descendants of all of Africa, a vast and endlessly varied continent. Its peoples have warred with and until not so very long ago even enslaved one another, as rampantly as humans worldwide always have. It is home to over 2,000 languages — almost every third language in the world. Preferring and massaging the single halcyon dream of ancient Egypt misses all of that rich diversity, misreading the historical record and depriving us of the true breadth of our heritage.

Most likely not a single enslaved Black person was brought to America from Cairo or Alexandria. They were brought to America from the West African coast, from what is now Senegal down to Angola. Senegal alone is over 3,000 miles across a desert to the southwest of Cairo as the crow flies — about as far as New York City is from Anchorage or Dublin. Black America tracing itself to Egypt makes as much historical sense as would Czechs deciding to celebrate St. Patrick’s Day, seek out first editions of James Joyce and favor tartans as an expression of being European.

Sure, all cultures mythologize their past to an extent. Ta-Nehisi Coates in his new book, “The Message,” argues that as Black people, “we have a right to imagine ourselves as pharoahs.” But we also have a right to imagine ourselves as sultans, maharajahs or New Guinea hunter-gatherers. What was wrong with what we actually were?

This question is especially urgent as the abiding fondness for the Egypt idea tends to sideline the astonishing history of the empires that enslaved Americans actually emerged from and amid. In the 13th century, the Mali Empire produced a kind of Magna Carta called the Kouroukan Fouga. It was mindful of the rights of women to a degree surprising for any document before, roughly, Ms. magazine, counseling respect for “women, our mothers.” It stipulated that a man’s insanity or impotence was justification for a woman to seek divorce. European history teaches us to associate ancient empires with the ambition of overseas exploration, and the Mali Empire was no exception. Musa, the grandson of the empire’s founder, Sundiata Keita, sent out hundreds of ships to explore the great beyond.

South of Mali in what is today Angola was the kingdom of the Kongo, which was ruled in the mid-17th century by Manikongo Garcia II. The historian Simon Sebag Montefiore has described him as holding “court amid Flemish tapestries, wearing Indian linens, eating with cutlery of American silver in the company of titled Kongo nobles and bishops in red sashes, while secretaries took dictation.” His rival was the queen of the neighboring Ndongo kingdom, Nzinga Mbande. She dressed in men’s clothes and excelled as a warrior; in off hours she enjoyed male concubines. Surely a ripe source for creative imagination.

In what we now call Benin once stood the Dahomey kingdom. Its capital could boast 12 palaces, festooned with bas-relief carvings depicting the history of the kingdom, every bit as impressive as what visitors see at the Met’s Egyptian rooms. King Houegbadja, who ruled in the 17th century, went about with an entourage of female soldiers. All of this is grounds for celebration and creativity that does not require drawing an imaginary line from King Tut to Will Smith.

I suspect that one reason Black Americans are drawn to ancient Egypt is that it may seem grander, more advanced than the West African empires. But that impression is based partly on how well Egypt’s monuments have survived in desert conditions. Monuments of the West African empires, hewed from forested regions and long since grown over, can be harder to reconstruct.

The history of ancient Egypt, too, is preserved in more detail than that of most West African empires because Egypt had a writing system. But that doesn’t mean that the society was more sophisticated. Enormously complex societies thrived in antiquity without writing, such as the Catalhoyuk in Turkey and the Cahokia in Illinois.

Of course, Black Americans aren’t the only ones who fetishize ancient Egypt. In the 18th and 19th centuries, many European and American thinkers participated in an Egyptology craze. It elevated ancient Egypt, with its Rosetta Stone, Cleopatra and such as “civilized” while casting sub-Saharan Africans as dismissible primitives. The philosopher Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel, for example, was renowned for his contemptuous take on the sub-Saharan region he called “Africa proper” — in effect, the real Africa. For him, this region was “unhistorical” with an “undeveloped spirit.”

That attitude lingered. When I was a young language-loving kid, I got a coloring book about the celebration of Christmas in 19 countries. I enjoyed it so much that I still have it. Each entry describes the customs in both English and the country’s official language. There was a serious flub, though: The description of Ethiopia’s customs was rendered in Swahili, which is not spoken in Ethiopia; its national language is Amharic, a relative of Hebrew and Arabic. By the standards of 1972 when the book was written, including an African country at all was ahead of the curve, but it seems that a residual sense of overgeneralization was still at play. I can’t see them as having described Denmark’s Christmas traditions in German.

The beauty of modern American Blackness is not a function of sphinxes, Nefertiti and hanging out with ancient Greeks. When creating and burnishing our stories, our myths, our art, we should remember where we really came from. The evidence is all around us. In the 1930s, the pioneering Black linguist Lorenzo Dow Turner found speakers of the Gullah Creole language on the coast of South Carolina and Georgia who could still sing songs in the Mende language of Sierra Leone. The reason peanuts are called goobers in the South (and in the candy that’s popular at movie theater concession stands) is that they were called nguba in the Kikongo language of Angola and other countries.

Kunta Kinte, in the book and later two miniseries of “Roots,” spoke the Mandinka language of the Mali Empire. Mythology is relevant here. Alex Haley, who wrote the novel, claimed that “Roots” was based on historical sources, but it has since become clear that he largely concocted the story of his ancestors, expanding shreds of fact into fiction he later called “faction.” OK, “Roots” is legend rather than scholarship. But at least it depicts one of Black Americans’ true places of origin.

I wish we could let go of the idea that ancient Egypt is Black Americans’ common heritage. My cheek swab traces me to Senegal and Angola. Preferences will differ on this, but as for me, I get ancestral pride from my relatives here in America, such as the fierce great-aunt I knew as T.I., who could sprint up subway steps without missing a beat at 92, or Mom Springer, who was a more or less out lesbian and jazz saxophonist in the 1920s. If I need some Africa in the mix, the enlightenment of Kouroukan Fouga and the fierceness of Nzinga Mbande do me just fine.

Angelina Jolie in the movie “Maria.” (Netflix)

Dear Commons Community,

Last night, Elaine and I saw the movie “Maria” starring Angelina Jolie as the opera diva, Maria Callas.  It specifically focuses on the last five days of her life before she succumbs to an over-reliance on drugs.  I thought Jolie was excellent in this complicated role of a complicated Callas.  There are a number of flashbacks which broaden the story. We see highlights of her performances, her relationship with Aristotle Onassis, and even a lunch she has with President John F. Kennedy. 

Elaine and I enjoyed it and we had a long discussion of it over dinner afterwards.  We both agreed that this was a very difficult movie to pull-off and real challenge for Jolie. Opera enthusiasts will probably love it – not sure about others.

Below is a review that appeared in the Los Angeles Times. 

Here is a url for an article on Maria Callas and Angelina Jolie that was published  in The New York Times.  It offers good insight into both Callas and Jolie.

Tony

————————————————

Los Angeles Times

Review: Angelina Jolie glides through ‘Maria’ like an iceberg, but a chilly Callas isn’t enough

Angelina Jolie in the movie “Maria.”

(Pablo Larraín / Netflix)

By Amy Nicholson  

Nov. 27, 2024

Maria Callas seized fame as the voice of Tosca, Medea and Carmen, opera’s eternally doomed heroines. If opera still commands audiences a century from now, perhaps it will sing of Callas, a fighter who survived the Nazi occupation of Greece, a heckling at La Scala, a media hazing on multiple continents and a humiliating public affair only to be hobbled by her own coping tools: sedatives and starvation.

“Maria,” starring Angelina Jolie, is director Pablo Larraín’s latest effort to build his own canon of 20th-century tragediennes. His previous melodramas “Jackie” and “Spencer” were fables about two painfully self-aware celebrities at their nadirs: Larraín peeked behind Jacqueline Kennedy‘s and Princess Diana’s facades less to humanize them than to expose their wounds. Callas, however, was infamous for her fits, so Larraín, perversely and underwhelmingly, chooses to respect her imperious veneer. If she’s the big boss-level diva he’s been working up to, Larraín lets her win.

This is Callas at the end of her life. Her corpse is the first thing we see onscreen, although cinematographer Edward Lachman has such a dazzling trick of cramming chandeliers into the frame that it takes a minute to spot her body. In the flashbacks that follow, Callas attempts to grandly dismiss liver disease as though it were spoiled wine. She spends most of the film doped up on Quaaludes, which in ’70s Paris were sold under the brand name Mandrax. Screenwriter Steven Knight even has her stroll around with an imaginary character named Mandrax (Kodi Smit-McPhee), a TV reporter she’s hallucinated into existence in order to feel important. Mandrax tosses her softball questions. She swats them down.

If you’ve seen any old interviews with Callas, you know that actual journalists tended to be rude with her. First, they’d ask Callas if she was a monster. Then they’d needle her about spending nine years with Aristotle Onassis only to get dumped for the future Jackie O. They needed to prick the goddess to see if she bled.

Early on, Callas parried these inquisitions with humor. Accused of hurtling a bottle of brandy at a director, she replied: “I wish I did. It would be a shame for the bottle.” As Callas got older, though, she got stiffer, and that’s the version we’re staring at here. Regal, guarded and stubborn, Jolie plays Callas as a lonely 50-something who rejected love, fame, joy and music and won’t fight that hard to get them back. Her character arc is just a blueprint plan of one; from scene to scene, you’re never sure whether she’s going to take action. Callas wants to be adored but she doesn’t want to be known. Her exhausted housekeepers Ferruccio (Pierfrancesco Favino) and Bruna (Alba Rohrwacher) speak volumes with every silent, fearful look, and when they get too personal with her, Callas commands them to move the piano as punishment.

Larraín makes a half-hearted attempt to recast Callas as a feminist martyr, alleging, as obliquely as possible, that she was once forced to trade her body to soldiers for cash and food. Biographical dots are unapologetically skipped, including her marriage to a man who doesn’t even merit a name before he’s ditched for Onassis (Haluk Bilginer). Adding to the disorientation, young Callas (Aggelina Papadopoulou) looks nothing like Jolie — not her lips, eyes, nose, jaw, frame, nothing. Yet the casting choice highlights how Callas recast herself in the 1950s, shedding a third of her body mass to transform from a zaftig soprano cliché into a high-fashion sylph (and in the process, sacrificing a bit of her oomph).

Callas could fold herself in a cloak and force an audience to focus on her. Her stillness was magnetic. All the emotions flooded out through her eyes and throat. Jolie trained in opera for seven months to prepare for the role and, according to Larraín, did her own singing on set. What we’re hearing is her voice blended into the real one at concentrations that range from 1% to 70% — the latter, I assume, in the scenes when a retired Callas tests her own vocal strength. To my ears, Jolie sounds fantastic, the kind of voice that would knock ’em dead on karaoke night. But peak Callas hits the senses like a lightning strike. Larraín tries to capture that power in his first close-up of Jolie, shoulders bare, singing at the camera in bold black and white. But the starkness of the shot works against him, giving us too much time to notice that Jolie’s throat barely seems to move, to wonder if her eyes shouldn’t have more passion.

Blazing passion used to be Jolie’s whole thing. I could close my eyes right now and see the wicked grin that made her a star in 1999’s “Girl, Interrupted.” But having endured her own tabloid scrutiny, she too has emerged too tightly controlled. Here, there’s only one second in one montage when, during a performance of Medea, Jolie unleashes a hot glare. The moment is so electric that you wish the whole film had that juice. We don’t see Callas that vibrant again until the end credits, and then, it’s archival footage of the real thing flashing a mischievous smile.“A song should never be perfect,” Callas insists. I agree. Some critics called her singing ugly. Not in the factual sense, because that would be crazy, but closer to how fashionistas know to add one discordant accessory. The clash keeps things interesting. Jolie, however, uses perfection as armor, so no matter how much her Callas insists that opera is intoxicating, no matter how intoxicated her character actually is, her performance is a sober take on madness.

Larraín allows himself the occasional visual thrill, say a throng of Parisians suddenly assembling into a chorus. Otherwise, we’re so deep inside Callas’ delusions that things just feel flat. “What is real and what is not real is my business,” she pronounces, having bent the world to her will.

Oddly, after swooning along with giant aria after giant aria, I left the theater fixating on one of Larraín’s smallest sound-design choices. It comes when Callas, resplendent even in a bathrobe, glides into the kitchen to sing at Bruna while the poor deary cooks her an omelet. The solo goes on forever, long enough to make the point that, yes, Callas had fans clamoring outside the Metropolitan Opera, but she could also be a bit of a bore. And then, mid-song, Larraín adds a tiny clang — the sound of the spatula hitting the pan — to let us know that even in the prima donna’s fiercely protected bubble, her ego doesn’t always trump a plate of eggs.

I wish Larraín had cut Callas down to size more. He’s too protective of his fellow artist to slosh around in the fury that fueled her art. Callas could sing three octaves, but the film is mostly one note.

Dear Commons Community,

Joseph Aoun, President of Northeastern University, has just published a 2nd edition of his book, Robot Proof, Higher Education in the Age of Artificial Intelligence.  The first was well-done and provided important commentary on the state of American higher education and its future.  I posted about it in 2017 (see:  https://apicciano.commons.gc.cuny.edu/2017/10/23/robot-proof-higher-education-in-the-age-of-artificial-intelligence-by-joseph-e-aoun/)  It was an important addition to the literature base on technology and the academy.

This 2nd edition is Aoun’s attempt to update the first edition in light of the emergence of generative AI with the release of ChatGPT in November 2022.  For those of us who write regularly about technology, we always hope that what we write does not become dated too quickly because of a newer or more advanced technology.  I am currently writing a 2nd edition of my book, Online Education:  Foundations, Planning and Pedagogy, that was published in 2018, for essentially the same reason Aoun is updating Robot Proof…  Aoun comments in the Preface that the emergence of generative AI is the main reason”I have revisited this book…”

If you have read and enjoyed the 1st edition, you will probably enjoyed Aoun’s update.

Below is a brief review of the 2nd edition.

Tony

About Robot-Proof, revised and updated edition

All the images in this posting are from the Collections of the New York Public Library.

Dear Commons Community,

Here is a featured story courtesy of The Associated Press.

When John Jobbagy’s grandfather immigrated from Budapest in 1900, he joined a throng of European butchers chopping up and shipping off meat in a loud, smelly corner of Manhattan that New Yorkers called the Meatpacking District.

Today only a handful of meatpackers remain, and they’re preparing to say goodbye to a very different neighborhood, known more for its high-end boutiques and expensive restaurants than the industry that gave it its name.

Jobbagy and the other tenants in the district’s last meat market have accepted a deal from the city to move out so the building can be redeveloped, the culmination of a decades-long transformation.

“The neighborhood I grew up in is just all memories,” said Jobbagy, 68. “It’s been gone for over 20 years.”

In its heyday, it was a gritty hub of over 200 slaughterhouses and packing plants at the intersection of shipping and train lines, where meat and poultry were unloaded, cut and moved quickly to markets. Now the docks are recreation areas and an abandoned freight line is the High Line park. The Whitney Museum of American Art moved from Madison Avenue next to Jobbagy’s meat company in 2015.

Some of the new retailers maintain reminders of the neighborhood’s meat-packing past. At the exposed brick entrance to an outlet of fashion brand Rag & Bone, which sells $300 leather belts, is a carefully restored sign from a previous occupant, “Dave’s Quality Veal,” in red and white hand-painted lettering.

Another sign for a wholesale meat supplier appears on a long building awning outside Samsung’s U.S. flagship phone store.

But the neighborhood no longer sounds, smells or feels like the place where Jobbagy began working for his father in the late 1960s. He worked through high school and college summers before going into business for himself.

Back then, meatpackers kept bottles of whiskey in their lockers to stay warm inside the refrigerated plants. Outside, “it reeked,” he said, especially on hot days near the poultry houses where chicken juices spilled into the streets.

People only visited the neighborhood if they had business, usually transacting in handshake deals, he said.

Slowly but surely, meatpacking plants began closing or moving out of Manhattan as advances in refrigeration and packaging enabled the meat industry to consolidate around packing plants in the Midwest, many of which can butcher and package more than 5,000 steers in a day and ship directly to supermarkets.

Starting in the 1970s, a new nightlife scene emerged as bars and nightclubs moved in, many catering to the LGBTQ+ community. Sex clubs and slaughterhouses coexisted. And as the decades wore on, the drag queens and club kids began giving way to fashion designers and restaurateurs.

By 2000, “Sex and The City” character Samantha had left her Upper East Side apartment for a new home in the Meatpacking District. By the show’s final 2003 season, she was outraged to see a Pottery Barn slated to open near a local leather bar.

Another turning point came with the 2009 opening of the High Line, on a defunct rail track originally built in the 1930s. The popular greenway is now flanked by hotels, galleries and luxury apartment buildings.

Jobbagy said his father died five years before the opening and would be baffled at what it looks like now.

“If I told him that the elevated railroad was going to be turned into a public park, he never would have believed it,” he said.

But the area has changed constantly, noted Andrew Berman, executive director of local architectural preservation group Village Preservation.

“It wasn’t always a meatpacking district. It was a sort of wholesale produce district before that, and it was a shipping district before that,” Berman said. In the early 1800s, Fort Gansevoort stood there. “So it’s had many lives and it’s going to continue to have new lives.”

Though an exact eviction date for the last meat market has not been set, some of the other companies will relocate elsewhere.

Not Jobbagy, who has held on by supplying high-end restaurants and the few retail stores that still want fresh hanging meat. He’ll retire, along with his brother and his employees, most of them Latino immigrants who trained with him and saved up to buy second homes in Honduras, Mexico or the Dominican Republic. Some want to move to other industries, in other states.

He expects to be the last meatpacker standing when the cleaver finally falls on Gansevoort Market.

“I’ll be here when this building closes, when everybody, you know, moves on to something else,” Jobbagy said. “And I’m glad I was part of it and I didn’t leave before.”

Another bit of New York City history says good-bye!

Tony

Dear Commons Community,

— Would you trust an “AI Jesus” with your innermost thoughts and troubles?

Researchers and religious leaders on Wednesday released findings from a two-month experiment in a Catholic chapel in Switzerland, where an avatar of “Jesus” on a computer screen — tucked into a confessional — took questions by visitors on faith, morality and modern-day woes, and offered responses based on Scripture.

The idea, said the chapel’s theological assistant, was to recognize the growing importance of artificial intelligence in human lives, even when it comes to religion, and explore the limits of human trust in a machine.  As reported by The Associated Press.

After the two-month run of the “Deus in Machina” exhibit at Peter’s Chapel starting in late August, some 900 conversations from visitors –- some came more than once –- were transcribed anonymously. Those behind the project said it was largely a success: Visitors often came out moved or deep in thought, and found it easy to use.

A small sign invited visitors to enter a confessional -– chosen for its intimacy –- and below a lattice screen across which penitent believers would usually speak with a priest, a green light signaled the visitor’s turn to speak, and a red one came on when “AI Jesus” on a computer screen on the other side was responding.

Often, a lag time was needed to wait for the response – a testament to the technical complexities. After exiting, nearly 300 visitors filled out questionnaires that informed the report released Wednesday.

Of love, war, suffering and solitude

Philipp Haslbauer, an IT specialist at the Lucerne University of Applied Sciences and Arts who pulled together the technical side of the project, said the AI responsible for taking the role of “AI Jesus” and generating responses was GPT-4o by OpenAI, and an open-source version of the company’s Whisper was used for speech comprehension.

An AI video generator from Heygen was used to produce voice and video from a real person, he said. Haslbauer said no specific safeguards were used “because we observed GPT-4o to respond fairly well to controversial topics.”

Visitors broached many topics, including true love, the afterlife, feelings of solitude, war and suffering in the world, the existence of God, plus issues like sexual abuse cases in the Catholic Church or its position on homosexuality.

Most visitors described themselves as Christians, though agnostics, atheists, Muslims, Buddhists and Taoists took part too, according to a recap of the project released by the Catholic parish of Lucerne.

About one-third were German speakers, but “AI Jesus” — which is conversant in about 100 languages — also had conversations in languages like Chinese, English, French, Hungarian, Italian, Russian and Spanish.

‘Work of the Devil’?

“What was really interesting (was) to see that the people really talked with him in a serious way. They didn’t come to make jokes,” said chapel theologian Marco Schmid, who spearheaded the project. Most visitors were aged 40 to 70, and more Catholics respondents found the experience stimulating than did Protestants, the report showed.

Schmid was quick to point out that the “AI Jesus” – billed as a “Jesus-like” persona – was an experiment to get people thinking about the intersection between the digital and the divine, not substitute for human interaction or sacramental confessions with a priest, nor was it intended to save pastoral resources.

“For the people it was clear that it was a computer … It was clear it was not a confession,” Schmid said. “He wasn’t programmed to give absolutions or prayers. At the end, it was more summary of the conversation.”

The Catholic Church from the Vatican on down has been wrestling with the challenges –- and possible opportunities -– presented by the explosion in public interest in AI since generative artificial intelligence captured the world’s attention two years ago when OpenAI’s ChatGPT made its debut.

The Vatican has appointed a friar from a medieval Franciscan order as its top expert on AI, and a Lutheran church in Bavaria served up sermons delivered by a chatbot last year. Pope Francis, in his annual peace message for this year, pushed for an international treaty to ensure the ethical use of AI technology.

Chatbots like ChatGPT are powered by algorithmic models trained on vast pools of text and other data to mimic speech and generate seemingly unique and human-like responses.

Haslbauer is sensitive to public reaction and has noted chatter on social media saying the project is “blasphemous” or the “work of the devil.”

“If you read comments on the internet about it, some are very negative — which is scary,” Haslbauer, whose long-haired look featured as a basis for the image of the virtual Jesus.

In a demonstration of the technology in the chapel, Haslbauer queried “AI Jesus” about its message for a troubled world, and about whether AI could be helpful as a way for people to find God.

“All knowledge and wisdom ultimately come from God,” the chatbot said in a soothing voice, after a pause to respond, and the image briefly crackled. “If used wisely, AI can indeed be a tool to explore the wonders of creation, deepen our understanding of Scripture, and foster connections among people.”

“Yet it remains essential to seek God with all your heart and soul beyond any technology,” it added.

A good side, and downsides

Kenneth Cukier, a journalist, author and expert with the U.S.-based nonprofit group called “AI and Faith,” said if “AI Jesus” helps people connect deeper to themselves and the world, it “has to be a good thing.”

“It will lead to better individuals and a better world,” he said. “However — and there’s a big however — this does feel a little bit infantile, and pardon my pun, machine-like.”

“The risk is that it pulls people, ultimately, farther away from that which is more meaningful, deeper and authentic in spirituality,” said Cukier, co-author of “Big Data: A Revolution that Will Transform How We Work, Live and Think.”

For Schmid, the exhibit was a pilot project — and he doesn’t foresee a second coming of “AI Jesus” anytime soon.

“For us, it was also clear it was just a limited time that we will expose this Jesus,” he said, adding that any return would need to be done after deeper thought.

“We are discussing … how we could revive him again,” he said, noting interest from parishes, schoolteachers, researchers and others as the project got media attention in Switzerland and beyond. “They all are interested and would like to have this ‘AI Jesus’. So we have now a little bit to reflect on how we want to continue.”

Can I hear an “AI Amen”!

Tony

Photo courtesy of USA Today.

Dear Commons Community,

Australia has imposed a sweeping ban on social media for children under 16, one of the world’s most comprehensive measures aimed at safeguarding young people from potential hazards online. The law sets a minimum age for users of platforms like TikTok, Instagram and X. How the restriction will be enforced  remains an open question.  As reported by The New York Times.

After sailing through Parliament’s lower house on Wednesday, the bill passed the Senate on yesterday with bipartisan support. Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has said that it puts Australia at the vanguard of efforts to protect the mental health and well-being of children from detrimental effects of social media, such as online hate or bullying.

The law, he has said, puts the onus on social media platforms to take “reasonable steps” to prevent anyone under 16 from having an account. Corporations could be fined up to 49.5 million Australian dollars (about $32 million) for “systemic” failures to implement age requirements.

Neither underage users nor their parents will face punishment for violations. And whether children find ways to get past the restrictions is beside the point, Mr. Albanese said.

“We know some kids will find workarounds, but we’re sending a message to social media companies to clean up their act,” he said in a statement this month.

As with many countries’ regulations on alcohol or tobacco, the law will create a new category of “age-restricted social media platforms” accessible only to those 16 and older. How that digital carding will happen, though, is a tricky question.

The law specifies that users will not be forced to provide government identification as part of the verification process, a measure that the conservative opposition said was included after they raised concerns about privacy rights.

It is also not clear exactly which platforms will be covered by the ban. The prime minister has said that Snapchat, TikTok, Instagram and X will be included, but YouTube and messaging apps including WhatsApp are expected to be exempt.

France last year passed a law requiring parental consent for social media users under 15, and it has been pushing for similar measures across the European Union. Florida imposed a ban for users under 14 and required parental consent for 14- and 15-year-olds that goes into effect next year, but that law is expected to face constitutional challenges.

It will be interesting to see if other countries follow suit!

Tony

Dear Commons Community,

The Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade marched, soared and roared into its second century yesterday despite a drenching rain.  One estimate had over 3 million people lining the parade route with another 15 million watching on TV.

Thanks to the wet weather, ponchos and umbrellas were part of the festivities, along with the usual giant balloons, floats and star-studded performances.

The latest edition of the annual holiday tradition featured new Spider-Man and Minnie Mouse balloons, zoo and pasta-themed floats, an ode to Big Apple coffee and bagels, performances from Jennifer Hudson, Idina Menzel and Kylie Minogue, and more.  As reported by  various news media.

The lineup was a far cry from the parade’s initial incarnation 100 years ago, which featured floats showing scenes from Mother Goose, Red Riding Hood and the Wolf, Miss Muffet and the Spider, and other fairy tales. 

Some things remained the same, though. As in 1924, there were plenty of marching bands and lots of clowns, followed by the grand finale of Santa Claus ushering in the holiday season.

This year’s parade featured 17 giant, helium-filled character balloons, 22 floats, 15 novelty and heritage inflatables, 11 marching bands from as far away as Texas and South Dakota, 700 clowns, 10 performance groups, award-winning singers and actors, and the WNBA champion New York Liberty.

Other highlights included reality TV star Ariana Madix, hip-hop’s T-Pain, country duo Dan + Shay, The War and Treaty, The Temptations, Jimmy Fallon & The Roots, Broadway veteran Lea Salonga, and “Glow” actor and Macy’s spokesperson Alison Brie.

One new float spotlighted the Rao’s food brand, featuring a knight and a dragon in battle made with actual pasta elements. Another celebrated the Bronx Zoo’s 125th anniversary with representations of a tiger, a giraffe, a zebra and a gorilla.

“The work that we do, the opportunity to impact millions of people and bring a bit of joy for a couple of hours on Thanksgiving morning, is what motivates us every day,” said Will Coss, Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade executive producer.

The parade route stretched 2.5 miles (4 kilometers) from Manhattan’s Upper West Side to Macy’s Herald Square flagship store on 34th Street, which served as a performance backdrop.

NBC’s Al Roker walked part of the route before joining co-hosts Savannah Guthrie and Hoda Kotb outside the store for the remainder of the live TV coverage. “Wicked” film star Cynthia Erivo presented the retiring Kotb with flowers to commemorate what could be her last parade broadcast.

The rain didn’t stop anything — the parade has only been canceled three times, from 1942 to 1944 during World War II — but organizers monitored wind speeds to make sure the big balloons were safe to fly.

Temperatures hovered near 50 degrees F (10 degrees C), with rain throughout the morning and winds around 10 mph (16 kph), well within the acceptable range for letting Snoopy, Bluey and their friends soar. City law prohibits Macy’s from flying full-size balloons if sustained winds exceed 23 mph (37 kph) or wind gusts are over 35 mph (56 kph).

The Thanksgiving Day Parade is special to me.  When I was a young toddler, my older brother Donald would bring me and my brother, Peter, on the subway (we did not own a car) to see the parade.  Besides the floats, balloons and Santa Claus, we waited anxiously to see our father, Amadeo, who in order to make a few extra dollars worked as a one of the clowns for Macys. 

Tony

Dear Commons Community,

If you are in New York, be sure to go to Macy’s Thanksgiving Parade.

Bring an umbrella!

Tony

Rudy Giuliani outside a Manhattan courthouse yesterday. Credit…Sarah Yenesel/EPA, via Shutterstock

Dear Commons Community,

Former  New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani was in federal court in Manhattan yesterday to discuss his continuing failure to give up nearly $11 million worth of personal assets. The forfeiture was meant as a down payment on the $148 million Mr. Giuliani owes to two Georgia election workers for defaming them by claiming, without evidence, that they had helped to steal the 2020 presidential election.

But first, Judge Lewis Liman allowed Mr. Giuliani’s lawyers to withdraw from the case. They had requested to be removed two weeks ago, citing an unspecified “professional ethics” concern.  As reported by The New York Times.

“I’m sorry it came to this,” Kenneth Caruso, one of Mr. Giuliani’s lawyers, said before he and his co-counsel left the hearing.

In a statement on Tuesday, Mr. Caruso said that there had been “a difference of opinion” with Mr. Giuliani but they wished his new counsel “every success.”

The focus then shifted to Mr. Giuliani’s new lawyer, Joseph M. Cammarata, a former police officer. The men forged a relationship after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, when Mr. Cammarata’s brother, a firefighter, was killed.

Mr. Cammarata, who has been involved in the case for just over a week, asked that Mr. Giuliani’s trial, which is scheduled for Jan. 16, be delayed to determine whether the former mayor could keep his condominium in Florida and several custom-made Yankees World Series rings.

Mr. Cammarata said the delay was necessary because he also had to prepare for a December court appearance in Washington, where Mr. Giuliani could be found in contempt of court for continuing to make false accusations about the two Georgia poll workers, Ruby Freeman and her daughter Shaye Moss.

Also, Mr. Cammarata said, Mr. Giuliani would like to attend President-elect Donald J. Trump’s inauguration on Jan. 20, and a trial could prevent that.

The answer, Judge Liman said, was no.

The hourlong hearing, punctuated by an angry outburst by Mr. Giuliani, was the most contentious yet in the winding search for his personal assets, which he was ordered to hand over to the two women more than a month ago.

For the first time in weeks, the strain of several cases stemming from Mr. Giuliani’s time as Mr. Trump’s personal lawyer appeared to be getting to him, as he sat slumped back in his chair with his arms crossed.

After missing several deadlines to surrender the bulk of his assets, Mr. Giuliani has only turned over a fraction of notable items, including some pieces from his luxury watch collection and a 1980 Mercedes-Benz convertible that he says once belonged to the actress Lauren Bacall. But Mr. Giuliani still has not provided the keys or the title to the vehicle.

The former mayor has begun the transfer of his most valuable asset, a 10-room apartment on Manhattan’s Upper East Side that had been listed for sale at more than $6 million. The process has been delayed because the property remains jointly held with his ex-wife, Judith Giuliani.

The scant items that have been surrendered are problematic, according to Judge Liman.

“The car without the keys and title is meaningless,” he said, cutting off Mr. Cammarata midsentence.

“Your client is a competent person,” the judge added, noting that Mr. Giuliani was a former U.S. attorney. (He was, however, recently disbarred in New York and Washington, D.C.)

Mr. Giuliani objected.

“I have applied for the title,” he said of the Mercedes. “I haven’t gotten it yet. What am I supposed to do, make it up myself?”

He continued.

“I don’t have a car,” he said in a raised voice. “I don’t have a credit card. I don’t have cash.” He complained that he didn’t “have a penny” that was not tied up by Ms. Freeman and Ms. Moss.

Judge Liman warned Mr. Giuliani to let his new lawyer speak for him.

“Somebody has to tell the truth!” Mr. Giuliani shot back.

“Next time, he’s not going to be permitted to speak,” Judge Liman told Mr. Cammarata. “And the court will have to take action.”

The women’s lawyers described their frustration in trying to recover Mr. Giuliani’s property, much of which is in a storage facility in Ronkonkoma, N.Y., on Long Island.

Aaron Nathan, one of the women’s lawyers, said Mr. Giuliani’s compliance had been “lackadaisical at best, and intentionally obstructive at worst.”

Last week, the women’s lawyers said that more than 20 pallets of moving boxes belonging to Mr. Giuliani were still at the storage facility, America First Warehouse, and that the owners were making it difficult to search the contents.

A facility representative, who calls himself “Joe the Box” on social media, posted a defiant video on X in which he expressed support for Mr. Giuliani and said he would not stand for someone to “dissect” the former mayor’s life.

Last Friday, Judge Liman ordered Mr. Giuliani to account for all of the property at the facility that was subject to seizure and to deliver it to a warehouse of the women’s choosing by Dec. 13.

If Mr. Giuliani continues to miss deadlines in the case, he could face steep penalties, including jail time. There could be similar consequences in Washington, where a judge will decide in December if the former mayor has violated an order not to defame the women by accusing them again of election fraud on recent media appearances.

Giuliani has become such a pathetic figure!

Tony