Alan Dershowitz is one of the most prolific legal scholars (and civil rights litigators) in this country of ours. In his latest book, The Preventive State, he takes the first step in developing the jurisprudence of what Philip K. Dick called precrime. Dershowitz argues that we need a better — and more transparent — legal system for calculating how many civil liberties we’re willing to sacrifice in order to prevent potential harm. He and Adaam debate what such a system would look like, what’s at stake of being lost, where do rights even come from, and whether the law is a rebellion against God.

On the agenda:

-Starting a conversation while canceled

-False positives and false negatives

-Kant in the streets, Bentham in the sheets (or: the Straussian case for legal ambiguity)

-Our rights come from our wrongs

-AI paving the path to Omelas

-The Talmudic rebellion

Also:

-Read Adaam’s piece on Jewish Law as the triumph against divine totalitarianism

Uncertain Things is hosted and produced by Adaam James Levin-Areddy and Vanessa M. Quirk. For more doomsday thoughts, subscribe to: http://uncertain.substack.com.

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