An underrated book that's very relevant. Caused some scandals in its time: Stefan Heym imagines the Book of David as an authorized document(ary) commissioned by King Solomon. Not Nathan, but Ethan the Scribe is hired to be embedded at the Palace, interview people, write. Officially Ethan can write anything -- but of course the King hopes for some results, manipulates, pressures. Poor Ethan. Sometimes aware, sometimes oblivious, he goes and pokes, explores, and uncovers a lot of wild details. People say weird things to him. Misdirections. Contradictions. Laughable attempts to evade him. The prophet Samuel seems to have been on drugs?? Lots of hashish around... Were Saul and David lovers ("he healed him, but not with his lyre")? -- by Jove, can it be that all these people are just like us? And why does everybody seem to be lying...? And how can real love still develop and inspire The Song of Songs?? I enjoyed this book a lot. Very fun. Often think about it. Recommended.

In our Reading Economics Together series, @TheAnnaGat dug into @erikphoel 2017 essay, "There's No Free Lunch," through a Hayekian lens. The core argument: intelligence is never truly general. Because the real world is hyper-complex and constantly shifting, massive statistical models and aggregated data inevitably wash out crucial local nuances. Hayek would argue AGI is impossible because no system can capture all that distributed context.