Page Form, Knowledge Form: From the Babylonian Talmud to Digital Platforms

This project examines the multilayered and timeless structure of the Babylonian Talmud page – as it was shaped during the print revolution and has remained to this day – as a cultural model which may provide a framework for comparison with contemporary digital knowledge management platforms such as GitHub and Wikipedia.

Through an examination of the page’s development, the shift to digital, and the breakthrough of large language models (LLMs), the research asks: Are we witnessing the continuation of a polyphonic interpretive tradition – or rather the shift into a new paradigm of knowledge generation, mediation, and organization in the age of AI and algorithmic interpretation?