A treasure trove of ancient texts has been unreadable for 2,000 years. By using an AI program he designed, Luke Farritor helped unveil its mysteries for the first time.
Very Cool. I hope Luke continues to be enthralled by wonders like these scrolls. And that his investing work leaves time for wonders. As someone else mentioned, not covered is the work of the PET scan or whatever they used to digitally "slice" the scrolls into thin layers to find and isolate the sentences.
That ancient library is so large that it will surely contain the complete poems of Sappho. Bringing her work out of the vault of time will be the greatest literary rebirth in history. Imagine finding a new epic by Homer. Now up the stakes by an order of magnitude. I hope I live long enough to celebrate the publication of Sappho's complete works.
This is why we can't give up on the young. Many of them use their gifts and those of current technology for purposes better than tracking Taylor Swift's and Elon Musk's airplanes.
OK , using the term AI always seems to imply to the uninformed that this is real intelligence , as in how we think, but that is just BS, hype etc . AI is a term meaning a program that can learn i.e. update it's database in a logical manner (that mimics logic in how we learn) . AI ideas (and name) come from research done in the 60's when computers were really slow and data base speeds were really slow. And there the ideas and research stalled . I took classes in the late 80's on it and it was interesting but waiting for breakthroughs . In mid 2000 the entry of SD drives instead of HD drives gave most databases a 100 plus speed improvement and thus the idea of computer learning was brought back from the dead, also some open source helped of plug and play learning programs . And thus we have the hype of AI on our world and strange fears of something that thinks like us , still a NOT there reality .
I really wish the FP would write about this history and evolution but it seems everything written is about the idea that we are creating a human mind of sorts and that just buys into the Hype and sales of programs and systems with the term. 10 years ago the hype was clouds and AI and today it's mostly AI and big AI clouds , just a re banding of hype. Computers and computer systems are all about sales so it is what it is ! I lived in and worked in the world of IT for around 45 years and have heard it all :)
Not just rewriting history but you could find the recipe for Roman Cement. That cement survives even today in water. Something our own cement technics haven't accomplished to the same degree. Their are inventions and building techniques the Romans new that we do not.
I was a poor Latin student for three years of high school and one year of college. In the 60 years since I graduated from HS, most vestages of Latin have been killed off, so I'm incredibly impressed by this young man's background and work. Like other powerful inventions, AI may be either our salvation or our doom.
I would have appreciated more information about the technical challenge. I still don't understand what the AI did or how that relates to the scrolls' fragility.
Very Cool. I hope Luke continues to be enthralled by wonders like these scrolls. And that his investing work leaves time for wonders. As someone else mentioned, not covered is the work of the PET scan or whatever they used to digitally "slice" the scrolls into thin layers to find and isolate the sentences.
How did i miss this when first published?! Happy it was linked in today’s FP!
“I got home that day and just got going and never stopped,” Farritor told me.
The below brought a huge smile to my face. There is nothing better than young ambition. Well done!
That ancient library is so large that it will surely contain the complete poems of Sappho. Bringing her work out of the vault of time will be the greatest literary rebirth in history. Imagine finding a new epic by Homer. Now up the stakes by an order of magnitude. I hope I live long enough to celebrate the publication of Sappho's complete works.
This is why we can't give up on the young. Many of them use their gifts and those of current technology for purposes better than tracking Taylor Swift's and Elon Musk's airplanes.
Wow. Thank God for smart prople.
OK , using the term AI always seems to imply to the uninformed that this is real intelligence , as in how we think, but that is just BS, hype etc . AI is a term meaning a program that can learn i.e. update it's database in a logical manner (that mimics logic in how we learn) . AI ideas (and name) come from research done in the 60's when computers were really slow and data base speeds were really slow. And there the ideas and research stalled . I took classes in the late 80's on it and it was interesting but waiting for breakthroughs . In mid 2000 the entry of SD drives instead of HD drives gave most databases a 100 plus speed improvement and thus the idea of computer learning was brought back from the dead, also some open source helped of plug and play learning programs . And thus we have the hype of AI on our world and strange fears of something that thinks like us , still a NOT there reality .
I really wish the FP would write about this history and evolution but it seems everything written is about the idea that we are creating a human mind of sorts and that just buys into the Hype and sales of programs and systems with the term. 10 years ago the hype was clouds and AI and today it's mostly AI and big AI clouds , just a re banding of hype. Computers and computer systems are all about sales so it is what it is ! I lived in and worked in the world of IT for around 45 years and have heard it all :)
Not just rewriting history but you could find the recipe for Roman Cement. That cement survives even today in water. Something our own cement technics haven't accomplished to the same degree. Their are inventions and building techniques the Romans new that we do not.
It'll be amazing when AI and quantum computing are used in tandem to figure out these ancient puzzles. It's not far off.
This article doesn't mention the computerized imaging breakthroughs that were necessary to read the charred scrolls without unrolling them.
I was a poor Latin student for three years of high school and one year of college. In the 60 years since I graduated from HS, most vestages of Latin have been killed off, so I'm incredibly impressed by this young man's background and work. Like other powerful inventions, AI may be either our salvation or our doom.
Thoroughly enjoyed this. I love history and anything that illuminates our past deserves to be shared. More, please.
I would have appreciated more information about the technical challenge. I still don't understand what the AI did or how that relates to the scrolls' fragility.
Great story. Good choice for the young man to skip college and move on with his life.
Great work. This kid is going places.
Inspiring piece. Maybe Latin will become hip again.