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Isaura

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Isaura’s Bookshelves

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Isaura is Currently Reading

Isaura is currently reading

Braiding Sweetgrass: Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge, and the Teachings of Plants

by Robin Wall Kimmerer

bookshelves: right-in-the-spot, en, currently-reading

Reading for the 2nd time

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— Sep 23, 2026 02:59AM

Sep 23, 2026 02:59AM

Isaura is currently reading

Magnifica Humanitas: On Safeguarding the Human Person in the Time of Artificial Intelligence

by Pope Leo XIV

bookshelves: currently-reading, en

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Isaura said: " (read from the POV of a non-theist from a Catholic culture)

8/6/2026, after reading the introduction:
The Pope uses the stories of Babel and the rebuilding the walls of the city of Jerusalem in Nehemiah as metaphors for the choice that face us in our (read from the POV of a non-theist from a Catholic culture)

8/6/2026, after reading the introduction:
The Pope uses the stories of Babel and the rebuilding the walls of the city of Jerusalem in Nehemiah as metaphors for the choice that face us in our use our technology. Babel stands for building through/for self-affirmation to the detriment of others, a power that dominates others, "the idolatry of profit that sacrifices the weak, a uniformity that neutralizes differences, and the pretense that a single language — even a digital one — can translate everything", while the "way of Nehemiah" stands for building for the common good, each bringing what they have to offer to the project for the benefit of all, while seeing diversity as a possibility and a resource rather than as a source of division or conflict. The Pope defends this second course of action.

But that very tension between a false universalism and diversity is also in the text. The Pope simultaneously addresses Christians and "all men and women of goodwill". But the path he traces is fundamentally Christian: it requires communing with God, having a relationship with God. This is all quite meaningless for many non-Christians, though we can all make an effort of translating what that would mean for us. But for a project that aims to include all humanity in its diversity, each according to their abilities and personhoods, this is quite a steep excluding, Babel-like fake universalizing step straight off the bat. I should probably not expect an encyclical to be an action guide for all humanity (it's the first I'm reading), and the Pope's job is to serve Catholics first and other Christians second, but it's interesting that pre-Vatican 2 pretense to universalism is not completely gone, and mostly that this tension doesn't really seem to have been dealt with (I'm interested if anyone has thoughts on the matter).

Anyway, none of this removes from the interest of the read, I look forward to getting more familiar with the Social Doctrine of the Church and encyclicals, and there are some very good passages:

"If we focus only on contingencies, we risk letting the succession of emergencies dictate the direction of our path."

"In the abstract, technology in and of itself is not a solution to humanity’s problems, just as it is not inherently evil. In practice, however, technology is never neutral, because it takes on the characteristics of those who devise, finance, regulate and use it. Therefore, the primary choice is not between a “yes” or “no” to technology, but rather between constructing Babel or rebuilding Jerusalem; between a power that claims to dominate the heavens and a people who work together in the presence of God to rebuild the walls of fraternal coexistence."

"Building for the common good means accepting the limits and weakness of humanity without considering them an error to be corrected. Today, the human desire for fullness of life is at risk of being misled by deceitful goals, such as the prospect of a technology that promises to free us from all weakness, and models of wellbeing that leave behind entire populations. [...] As a result, while some pursue the illusion of unlimited self-assertion, many are deprived of basic necessities."

"No one can single-handedly bear the weight of the challenges the world is facing, just as no one is so weak that they cannot play their part." ...more "

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— Sep 23, 2026 02:59AM

Sep 23, 2026 02:59AM · see review

Isaura is currently reading

La bureaucratie de la punition: Les caméras-piétons au service du pouvoir policier

by Sihame Assbague

bookshelves: fr, currently-reading

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(page 114 of 228)
— May 10, 2026 01:55PM

Apr 08, 2026 04:29AM

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Isaura’s Quotes

“Imagination is the ability to produce new ideas without the need of time to stop and actually think about it. I'll produce elevator buttons - I bought that business from Jarod Kintz, who was only selling it, because he found a new, more profitable job – male prostitution (he’s selling his grandpa’s services, not his own, because his own are virtually non-existent – he’s a monk now, and monks are sworn to celibacy, you know, or should, by now). Buy now - grieve later. Two 5th floor buttons for your floorless cardboard-built tree house, for the price of one, 7-story tall tree, which, for the purpose of this story we’ll call Nathan. Nathan sends you its best regards and wishes you a happy, silent, well-watered-down life, which, coming from a tree isn’t really that much, however, as you know - trees aren’t regular customers in the land of walking and talking, and it took quite a lot of convincing to make him come over and say that. Meow.”
― Will Advise, Nothing is here...

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“Some people talk about other people’s failures with so much pleasure that you would swear they are talking about their own successes.”
― Mokokoma Mokhonoana

tags: aphorism, aphorisms, condemn, criticism, criticize, deplore, enemies, enemy, envious, envy, failure, failures, gossip, humor, humour, jealous, jealousy, please, pleasure, quotation, quotations, quote, quotes, satire, success, successes, swear

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“Nobody enjoys the company of others as intensely as someone who usually avoids the company of others.”
― Mokokoma Mokhonoana

tags: affable, alone, amicable, anchoress, anchorite, anthropocentric, anthropocentrism, antisocial, approachable, ascetic, by-oneself, chummy, cloistered, clubby, communicative, companionable, companionless, convivial, cordial, eremite, extrovert, forthcoming, friendless, friendly, genial, gregarious, hail-fellow-well-met, hermit, hermitic, incommunicado, introvert, isolate, isolation, lone-wolf, lonely, loner, lonesome, marabout, misanthrope, misanthropy, on-one-s-own, open, outgoing, recluse, reclusive, responsive, seclude, secluded, sociable, solitarian, solitary, solitudinarian, troglodyte, unaccompanied, unsociable, warm, withdrawn

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“Finally you get to the age when a book’s power to make you think becomes the first thing you notice about it.”
― Clive James, Latest Readings

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“When we characterize talk as hot air, we mean that what comes out of the speaker’s mouth is only that. It is mere vapor. His speech is empty, without substance or content. His use of language, accordingly, does not contribute to the purpose it purports to serve. No more information is communicated than if the speaker had merely exhaled. There are similarities between hot air and excrement, incidentally, which make hot air seem an especially suitable equivalent for bullshit. Just as hot air is speech that has been emptied of all informative content, so excrement is matter from which everything nutritive has been removed. Excrement may be regarded as the corpse of nourishment, what remains when the vital elements in food have been exhausted. […] In any event, it cannot serve the purposes of sustenance, any more than hot air can serve those of communication.”
― Harry G. Frankfurt, On Bullshit