Nature Future Conditional

The story behind the story: Sofer Pete

In this week’s Futures, Tom Easton and Michael A Burstein tackle an unusual issue in artificial intelligence with their story Sofer Pete.  You can find out more about Michael’s activities at his website. Here Tom and Michael offer some insight into the origins of their latest tale — as ever, it pays to read the story first.

Writing Sofer Pete

Recently a friend brought our attention to a report of an industrial robot being used to copy the Torah. It noted that for several reasons the result would not be suitable for use. But we thought that that might not always be true. Artificial intelligence is advancing very rapidly, and it may not be long before our story is less fiction than news.

Judaism has had to deal with changes in society and technology for 2,000 years. Many Jewish science-fiction fans love to play with the questions of how Jewish law will deal with future technology, such as cloned meat or time machines. Assuming true artificial intelligence develops, the role of a robot in the Jewish world will also have to be determined.

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