Research Seminar 13.04.2026: Israel Belfer - Artifice and Intelligence: From the middle ages to the Information Age

Israel Belfer 

The Program for Science Technology and Society (STS), Bar-Ilan University

Artifice and Intelligence – From the middle ages to the Information Age

The rise of higher education institutions in Europe (the High Middle Ages) was a time of intense engagement with both old and new knowledge – if not an information revolution in the modern sense. The challenges of learning and integrating diverse subjects and practices within the universities were accompanied by surrounding pressures of status and economy. The coveted goal was mastery over centers of knowledge and the ability to use it authoritatively, all under constraints of time, individual capacity, and access to materials. Among the wide range of solutions and new modes of presenting knowledge in this period, we may focus on the esoteric domain of the Ars Notoria – a set of practices and diagrams designed to enable rapid attainment of such intellectual goals. At the same time, within Jewish culture, a parallel array of methods was developing. In a milieu where intellectual excellence was recognized as the primary path for those suitably gifted, Jewish mystics employed the tools at their disposal for comparable aims in study and teaching. Traditions such as Sar ha-Torah and the practices associated with the “Shem HaKotev” offered possible pathways – especially with the rise of esotericism as a domain of activity – for some learners to cope with the demand for mastery. The comparison between this dynamic period and contemporary challenges and tools is particularly compelling, especially in light of the promises and (possibly diabolical) dangers  that accompany them. 

Gathering for coffee and refreshments at 16:00

Chair: Ori Belkind

The public is invited