Judaism and SF

[cellio]

Wandering Stars is the classic compilation of SF around Jewish themes, including halachic issues that just don't arise in day-to-day life like whether space aliens can convert (and, IIRC, managing the calendar on other planets). Some of my readers might be interested in the following speculative questions that have been asked on Judaism.StackExchange:

Does the torah discuss (space) aliens?

Time travel and Judaism

If a pig was genetically modified to chew its cud would it be kosher?

(I just posted these on an old entry in response to a comment (was cleaning out spam and noticed it), but I then thought they might be of more general interest.)

Edit:

The following were contributed by Isaac Moses in a comment:

Can a robot be your rabbi? (As if we don't have enough trouble with people thinking that a website can be a rabbi.)

Does Robot = Golem?

Can a robot be your official agent? Looks like your anthology can have a whole section on robots.

If you can drive a car using only your brain, can you do that on Shabbat?


And based on another comment, I just asked: When does somebody living in space observe shabbat?

Comments

*

[browngirl.livejournal.com]

*makes a note*

[mabfan.livejournal.com]

Hey, thanks!

[nancylebov.livejournal.com]

There's also a more recent collection called People of the Book (http://www.amazon.com/People-Book-Science-Fiction-Fantasy/dp/1607012383/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1312338298&sr=8-3).

[cellio]

Oh cool! Thanks; I hadn't heard of that one. Gaiman, Yolen, Beagle... sounds promising!

(There's also a second volume of Wandering Stars, but it's not as good as the original.)

[zare-k.livejournal.com]

Well, hmm... per the top-ranked answer a naturally born, genetically modified pig that chews its cud (and divides the hoof, etc) is still not kosher because it is the direct offspring of a decidedly non-kosher pig. Is there some point-- perhaps after some number of generations-- that the descendents of the genetically modified pig might be considered kosher?

[isaac moses (from livejournal.com)]

zare_k, That sounds like a great follow-up question! http://judaism.stackexchange.com/questions/ask

[cellio]

I don't know. You could ask. :-) (StackExchange uses OpenID, so it's easy to get access to post.) It is possible, though I do not know, that it is only one generation, reasoning from the fact that the milk of a non-kosher animal is not kosher -- I'm thinking "direct output" might be a factor. Or not.

[zare-k.livejournal.com]

Done in comments on the OP.

[siderea]

What's the trouble? If you can genetically engineer a pig to chew its own cud, it shouldn't be any problem to implant the zygote of this cud-chewing-pig into a cow for gestation. Voila, bacon for everyone.

[cellio]

I wonder if that would count as grafting, which isn't permitted for plants (all? some? not sure) but I have no idea about animals.

[eub.livejournal.com]

That's interesting about grafting. If eating the fruit of a grafted apple tree is impermissible, that's a *lot* of your commercial apple production.

[isaac moses (from livejournal.com)]

Nice anthology!

[cellio]

Thanks! I'm much newer to the site than you are, so if you know of others that would fit in here, please share the links and I'll edit them into the post.

[isaac moses (from livejournal.com)]

If you check out my user ID on the site, you'll find that you're far from alone in that condition. 8^)

Challenge accepted! Here are some good candidates:

• Can a robot be your rabbi? (As if we don't have enough trouble with people thinking that a website can be a rabbi.)


• Does Robot = Golem?


• Can a robot be your offical agent? Looks like your anthology can have a whole section on robots.


• If you can drive a car using only your brain, can you do that on Shabbat?

[cellio]

If you check out my user ID on the site, you'll find that you're far from alone in that condition. 8^)

You're a moderator (and I think creator of the previous incarnation), so you've seen it all go by. I followed a link from Joel Spolsky to the proposal a few months ago and have not read every question in the archive. :-)

Thanks for the additional questions! And this discussion prompted me to ask one more (see comment to dagonell).

[dagonell.livejournal.com]

Have any of the astronauts been Jewish? How do you observe the Sabbeth when you can watch a sunset every twenty minutes?

[cellio]

Jewish shuttle astronauts have been advised to use Cape Canaveral time (last place they were that had sunrise/sunset). I just asked how one living in space for an extended time would observe, since relocation might be different from a quick trip.

[starmalachite.livejournal.com]

Re the kosher pig: Analog published a story on exactly that issue about 20 years ago from the POV of the poor rabbi who got stuck making the decision. IIRC, he eventually decided that such a thing amounted to a new divine dispensation & therefore declaring it treyf would be displeasing to G-d.

[cellio]

I like that approach better than the far-too-common "new, therefore forbidden" one.