Jewish Epistemology in Cybernetic Representation Categories

Links between "formal" Jewish tradition and digital systems of von Neumann:

1) Action determined according to a set of explicit rules

2) Knowledge encoded in systems of physically arbitrary symbols

3) An ultimate order controlling apparently chaotic phenomena

"His brother observed that John von Neumann's preoccupation with the models seemed to lead him to experience feelings akin to awe, if not religious feeling"

Links between Wiener's analog devices and Wiener's discovery of his Jewish heritage:

“When I became aware of my Jewish origin, I was shocked.... I looked in the mirror and there was no mistake: the bulging myopic eyes, the slightly averted nostrils, the dark, wavy hair, the thick lips. They were all there.” (Heims pg 15).

Analog elements of ethnic identity: voice tone, gesture, eating habits, walk, etc.

The contrast between Wiener's analog technology and von Neumann's digital technology are in striking parallel to the differences in their identities as Jews. What is relation to their ideology? NONE

Connection between women's peripheral status in Jewish culture and the division between women's association with gashmuit (physicality) and men's association with ruhniut (spirituality).

Adler (1983) on female Jewish feminists: the realm of gashmuit is one of defeat. For her the only solution is to end the isolation of women in gashmuit by including them fully in the formal system. She proposes that this occur only through the traditional system for alterations in halakhah, the formal law, thus making the changes in women's status entirely within the currently defined codes.

Waskow (1983) on male Jewish feminists: use the traditional physicality of Jewish women's culture as a legitimate place to develop spiritual knowledge and status. “We can enrich the Jewish sense that the spirit is the body, that the spiritual and the physical fuse, by encouraging dance, mime, body movement, breathing, the arts and artisanship, and the theatrical "acting" as a part of prayer, Torah study, and midrashic storytelling.