4 ms·

The names of the systems are “The Gospel” and “Lavender”! How is it that a Jewish army is using Christian references for their AI killing systems? I don’t think

The names of the systems are “The Gospel” and “Lavender”! How is it that a Jewish army is using Christian references for their AI killing systems? I don’t think that is unintentional.

permo-w 3y ago
is "Lavender" a Christian reference?
- readyplayernull 3y ago
  Lavender's history has biblical roots. It is referred to as Spikenard in the Bible. Mary used it on the infant Jesus and anointed Jesus after the crucifixion when she was preparing him for burial. So it has a "life and death" connotation which makes a lot of sense when you think of the system as a roulette for those chosen to die.
  - alchemist1e9 3y ago
    Exactly. There is no way that whomever named these systems didn’t do it intentionally. The question is why? what was the motivation?
    - readyplayernull 3y ago
      It's a form of ideological hand-washing, they don't want to link the killing to their own religion but it's ok to link the other well known religion. Coincidentally hand washing refers to the story in St. Matthew’s gospel, when Pontius Pilate ‘washed his hands before the multitude, saying, I am innocent of the blood of this just person’.
  - YeGoblynQueenne 3y ago
    Sources? What Christ was offered in his birth was myrrh (by one of the Magi) and his body was wrapped in myrrh after his death (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Myrrh#In_the_New_Testament https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Myrrh#In_the_New_Testament). Myrrh and Lavender seem to be very different. Is there some popular association of the two (like yams with sweet potatoes)?
    - alchemist1e9 3y ago
      A quick google search for “lavender christianity” shows many many people have associated them together, possibly with some historical or primary source inconsistencies, however it’s very obvious connected. In addition to search engines a conversation with any LLM has them immediately explain the connection. Now you might be correct there is some mis-associating from a purely academic standpoint and that actually makes it even more interesting the IDF used it as a name, considering the other name is “The Gospel”. Isn’t the message to Christians - “you’re idiots and we kill our enemies using AI systems named to make fun of you”?
      - YeGoblynQueenne 3y ago
        I was raised Greek Orthodox and that's not a message I receive at all. I commented as above because for me there is no association between Christianity and lavender. Asking others who were also raised Greek Orthodox, lavender has no special meaning for any of us at all. To clarify, that's not from an academic standpoint, but from the point of view of tradition. Perhaps it's a Catholic or Protestant thing, but, if so, I don't know where it comes from. I used to love reading the New Testament and I really don't remember any mention of lavender at all. It could be an Old Testament thing though, so, to be fair, more Jewish than Christian. In Greek Orthodox practice the aromatic of choice is frankincense (every church smells of it because the priests burn it in long-chained incense burners that they swing wildly left and right during liturgy), and, separately, myrrh (although that's associated with death and funerals, I guess). Lavender we mainly use to keep moths off clothes, to be honest. I got small muslin-wrapped packets of it in my closet. I also am not sure why Israelis would want to send a message to Christians about an AI system used to kill mainly Muslims. I mean, in practice, the Israelis enemies are Arabs who tend to be Muslim, so why would they send a message to Christians? In any case, can you please share some of the information you found in your quick googling? I'm curious to see what people say. I had a quick look online also and couldn't really find anything specific. The wikipedia page on lavender also lists no specific relation with Christianity, as opposed e.g. for myrrh and frankincense.
        alchemist1e9 3y ago
colinprince 3y ago
"The Gospel" has wider connotations https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_gospel https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_gospel probably from the Greek https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/εὐαγγέλιον https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/εὐαγγέλιον
- alchemist1e9 3y ago
  That’s a stretch considering any Jewish person I’ve ever known would immediately associate “The Gospel” with Christianity and what officially their religion considers as a blasphemy and heresy. There is absolutely no possible way that whomever named the system wasn’t consciously linking it and invoking the religious connotation.
  - zed1726 3y ago
    Correct. The Jewish people think of the Gospel as "that which the masses blindly accept as true but we know internally to be false" which is apt given what they have intended to use it for.
    - alchemist1e9 3y ago
      Which perhaps they even expounded on by using “Lavender” which potentially is something Christians may have mis-associated with Jesus’s birth (see parallel comments on Lavender). The message to Christian’s is clear - “thanks for all the funding, you’re a bunch of fools, and we are killing our enemies in your name”

The names of the systems are “The Gospel” and “Lavender”! How is it that a Jewish army is using Christian references for their AI killing systems? I don’t think that is unintentional.

permo-w 3y ago

is "Lavender" a Christian reference?

readyplayernull 3y ago
Lavender's history has biblical roots. It is referred to as Spikenard in the Bible. Mary used it on the infant Jesus and anointed Jesus after the crucifixion when she was preparing him for burial. So it has a "life and death" connotation which makes a lot of sense when you think of the system as a roulette for those chosen to die.
- alchemist1e9 3y ago
  Exactly. There is no way that whomever named these systems didn’t do it intentionally. The question is why? what was the motivation?
  - readyplayernull 3y ago
    It's a form of ideological hand-washing, they don't want to link the killing to their own religion but it's ok to link the other well known religion. Coincidentally hand washing refers to the story in St. Matthew’s gospel, when Pontius Pilate ‘washed his hands before the multitude, saying, I am innocent of the blood of this just person’.
- YeGoblynQueenne 3y ago
  Sources? What Christ was offered in his birth was myrrh (by one of the Magi) and his body was wrapped in myrrh after his death (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Myrrh#In_the_New_Testament https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Myrrh#In_the_New_Testament). Myrrh and Lavender seem to be very different. Is there some popular association of the two (like yams with sweet potatoes)?
  - alchemist1e9 3y ago
    A quick google search for “lavender christianity” shows many many people have associated them together, possibly with some historical or primary source inconsistencies, however it’s very obvious connected. In addition to search engines a conversation with any LLM has them immediately explain the connection. Now you might be correct there is some mis-associating from a purely academic standpoint and that actually makes it even more interesting the IDF used it as a name, considering the other name is “The Gospel”. Isn’t the message to Christians - “you’re idiots and we kill our enemies using AI systems named to make fun of you”?
    - YeGoblynQueenne 3y ago
      I was raised Greek Orthodox and that's not a message I receive at all. I commented as above because for me there is no association between Christianity and lavender. Asking others who were also raised Greek Orthodox, lavender has no special meaning for any of us at all. To clarify, that's not from an academic standpoint, but from the point of view of tradition. Perhaps it's a Catholic or Protestant thing, but, if so, I don't know where it comes from. I used to love reading the New Testament and I really don't remember any mention of lavender at all. It could be an Old Testament thing though, so, to be fair, more Jewish than Christian. In Greek Orthodox practice the aromatic of choice is frankincense (every church smells of it because the priests burn it in long-chained incense burners that they swing wildly left and right during liturgy), and, separately, myrrh (although that's associated with death and funerals, I guess). Lavender we mainly use to keep moths off clothes, to be honest. I got small muslin-wrapped packets of it in my closet. I also am not sure why Israelis would want to send a message to Christians about an AI system used to kill mainly Muslims. I mean, in practice, the Israelis enemies are Arabs who tend to be Muslim, so why would they send a message to Christians? In any case, can you please share some of the information you found in your quick googling? I'm curious to see what people say. I had a quick look online also and couldn't really find anything specific. The wikipedia page on lavender also lists no specific relation with Christianity, as opposed e.g. for myrrh and frankincense.
      - alchemist1e9 3y ago

colinprince 3y ago

"The Gospel" has wider connotations https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_gospel https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_gospel probably from the Greek https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/εὐαγγέλιον https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/εὐαγγέλιον

alchemist1e9 3y ago
That’s a stretch considering any Jewish person I’ve ever known would immediately associate “The Gospel” with Christianity and what officially their religion considers as a blasphemy and heresy. There is absolutely no possible way that whomever named the system wasn’t consciously linking it and invoking the religious connotation.
- zed1726 3y ago
  Correct. The Jewish people think of the Gospel as "that which the masses blindly accept as true but we know internally to be false" which is apt given what they have intended to use it for.
  - alchemist1e9 3y ago
    Which perhaps they even expounded on by using “Lavender” which potentially is something Christians may have mis-associated with Jesus’s birth (see parallel comments on Lavender). The message to Christian’s is clear - “thanks for all the funding, you’re a bunch of fools, and we are killing our enemies in your name”