In the 21st century, people rely on a vast database --- the
internet --- of so-called reliable information. People can make verbal or
written queries to acquire answers.
Well over 3,300 years ago, in and around Athens, Greece, a
man named Aristotle assembled a huge database of knowledge. He and his
assistants recorded on papyri everything they could. This included topics such
as logic, linguistics, botany, metaphysics, philosophy, among other subjects.
For well over a thousand years after his death, Medieval and Renaissance
scholars and students relied on Aristotle’s database to provide education and guidance.
Such was the depth of the Ancient Greek’s database, which was encyclopedic.
The database of knowledge we are beginning to use today is
based on information from the internet. Our new relationship with it is called
Artificial Intelligence.
Aristotle’ database was natural, not artificial.
For centuries, people relied on his database. Today we rely
on ours: the internet and Artificial Intelligence and its complex algorithms.
However, Aristotle was way ahead of his time.
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