In the pope's new encyclical Magnificent humanity the holy father places two images from the bible in juxtaposition. The first being the tower of babel story and told in genesis, which is commonly understood as morality tale of the consequences of trying to reach heaven without god's blessing. A hubristic act if ever there was one. The second image the pope uses of the rebuilding of Jerusalem after the fall of babylon, which was an endeavor blessed by god, not only because it's Jerusalem, not only because god himself commanded it, but by the collaborative way in which it was carried out in which all were given a section to rebuild. Pope Leo keeps returning to these images throughout hundred or so pages of his document.

He reiterates the historic catholic philosophy about technology, that With a very few exceptions technology is neutral force. However technology can take on the moral character of those who build, finance, and regulate it. In this context the holy father sees reason to fear ai because it is being imposed upon us by a class of people so wealthy they are unaccountable to democratic processes, and can even shape those democratic processes their ends. Thus the tower of babel image, he seems to suggest that in that the scenario the people doing the building would not necessarily be in agreement with the aim of those who ordered the constructions.

Ultimately the pope uses this metaphor in order to introduce his central theme the Culture of Power versus the Civilization of Love. I really heartily recommend reading magnificent humanity yourself especially if you're a technological practitioner. I hope to have more reflections directly on it once I have absorbed the content more thoroughly. Now however I wish to explore some of the implications of the pope's use of the image of the ascents on the current situation.

A bit of background

the bible of course is not a history book at least not in the modern sense. Although it contains historical narrative rigorous documentation of events often goes by the wayside. In favor of myth building, and theological, and moral reflection on the meaning of events. This was common in the ancient world as evidenced by the Aeneid of rome, or any number of other ancient so called histories. Indeed in our own day much of what is commonly said to be history is myth.

According to the bible after the death of Solomon israel was broken into two kingdoms the northern kingdom containing ten of the tribes israel and deans southern kingdom containing two. The northern kingdom was destroyed by the Assyrian empire, and the southern kingdom was destroyed by babylon. a large portion of the population of both kingdoms was led into captivity by the conquerors. And for a while the historical and pseudo historical portions of the bible go silent. the legend of the people of israel picks up with the persian empire coming to power and allowing the survivors and their descendants of the Babylonian captivity to return to the area around Jerusalem if they so wished. The book of Nehemiah tells the story of a cupbearer to the persian emperor who happens to be a descendant of Judea. When he receives word that the city of Jerusalem is without walls and the people who have returned are in distress he himself returns to help out. Nehemiah rallies the people, and through much adversity rebuilds the city walls and eventually the temple of god. But it is very much a collaborative effort there's a lot of negotiating, and the whole effort had to be guarded by armed men to prevent the historic enemies of the jews from putting a stop to the work by force.

Most of the book of Nehemiah is filled with administrative minutia about workers and guard rotation that is the thumbnail sketch of the interesting bits.

More important is what the text signifies as a spiritual metaphor.

spiritual metaphor

In christian spiritual imagery the city of Jerusalem is the dwelling place of god themselves