"Many shall run to and fro, and knowledge shall be increased." (Daniel 12:4)
Shefa is a Hebrew word I grew up with in synagogue, long before I thought about what it meant.
Between prayers, I would walk around collecting candy, competing with the other kids for the last few pieces. My pockets were already so full that candy fell out behind me as I walked.
At home, I was lucky to get a few pieces before my older siblings finished everything. But in synagogue, there was always shefa. People gave candy by the handful, with a delighted smile. And when God gives, blessings pour like rain.
I think of intelligence as a gift from God. I want more people to have access to it.
That word came back to me while reading two essays about where AI is going: Sam Altman's "The Intelligence Age" argues for making compute abundant; Dario Amodei's "Machines of Loving Grace" spends more time on what AI could change in medicine and mental health. Altman worries that without cheaper compute, intelligence becomes "a tool for rich people," a resource people fight over. Amodei guesses that AI-accelerated neuroscience could expand what he calls "cognitive and mental freedom," compressing a hundred years of progress on depression, PTSD, and addiction into five to ten AI-accelerated years. What interests me in both is who gets help that used to be out of reach.
A second opinion
Someone has a question about their health and keeps putting it off. Could easier access to useful information help them take the next step?
Shefa
The Kabbalists used the same word, shefa, for the flow of divine sustenance moving from the highest, least reachable place down through every level, until it reaches the world people actually live in. Shefa that never flows all the way down is wealth sitting somewhere unreachable.
Binah is Hebrew for understanding. It is also the name of one of the ten sefirot, one of the channels shefa passes through. That connection interests me: how does something we receive become an understanding of our own?
I don't know how widely the help will reach if only a small group can afford to run the systems.
The next question
How many questions go unasked because we're embarrassed, short of time, or unsure whom to call? I want people to keep asking after the first answer. That's the possibility here that excites me most.
My hope is that intelligence reaches everyone, passed around by the handful.
Sources
- Sam Altman, "The Intelligence Age" (Sep 2024): on making compute abundant so it doesn't become "a tool for rich people," and on "massive prosperity" as a defining trait of the era.
- Dario Amodei, "Machines of Loving Grace" (Oct 2024): the neuroscience and mental health section, on compressing a century of progress on mental illness into "5-10 AI-accelerated years" and expanding "cognitive and mental freedom."
- Shefa as the continuous divine flow through the sefirot, from Ein Sof through Keter, Chokhmah, and Binah down to Malkhut. Satyori, Kabbalah Concepts: Shefa; Chabad.org, The Sefirot.