We clearly need to scan the scrolls differently. We can't use images that are almost all noise and no signal and expect miracles to happen.
Reading Ancient Scrolls
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Re: Reading Ancient Scrolls
#12What was the reason for using a density scanner then throwing GPUs at it, rather than just using a scanner that worked, such as 13C MRI ?
MRI ought to produce better results. But do we have high-enough-resolution MRI scanners?
I was under the impression that you can always get more resolution out of MRI by scanning for longer and giving the machine more compute and RAM.
Re: Reading Ancient Scrolls
#13We clearly need to scan the scrolls differently. We can't use images that are almost all noise and no signal and expect miracles to happen.
I'd like to see the scan done with a CT scanner, but with perhaps 10 different photon energies.
That should give plenty of information to separate different element concentrations in papyrus and ink
Re: Reading Ancient Scrolls
#14Another contestant in the competition here. Really great stuff from Casey! I'd strongly recommend all those interested in more updates to join the discord server: https://discord.gg/6FgWYNjb4N Competition website: https://scrollprize.org/
Don't join discord. There are plenty alternatives that do respect human freedom.
Re: Reading Ancient Scrolls
#15Another contestant in the competition here. Really great stuff from Casey! I'd strongly recommend all those interested in more updates to join the discord server: https://discord.gg/6FgWYNjb4N Competition website: https://scrollprize.org/
How much of that website is true and how much is fluffing his own project/research? It would be good to have at least some external or independent links on this topic. As it stands it reads more like marketing and less like research, which doesn't mean anything necessarily but does make me skeptical.
Re: Reading Ancient Scrolls
#16Very fascinating! For anyone interested, the article on the of books that might be uncovered at Herculaneum, is a great read as well!
Re: Reading Ancient Scrolls
#17Another contestant in the competition here. Really great stuff from Casey! I'd strongly recommend all those interested in more updates to join the discord server: https://discord.gg/6FgWYNjb4N Competition website: https://scrollprize.org/
How much of that website is true and how much is fluffing his own project/research? It would be good to have at least some external or independent links on this topic. As it stands it reads more like marketing and less like research, which doesn't mean anything necessarily but does make me skeptical.
I am not in any way qualified to assess the quality of his research as this is completely outside my scope of practice, but I am failing to detect any marketing in what is an interesting open source (and possibly forfeiting or foregoing the rules of the prize) disclosure of something that he believes is a progression of the subject under discussion, and will ultimately lead to further progression; or alternatively lead to dismissal if the methods disclosed turn up nothing of further benefit.
Seems like someone who is pretty into the scientific method, and, more importantly, spirit, to me?
Disclosure: I went to high school with Casey
Re: Reading Ancient Scrolls
#18What was the reason for using a density scanner then throwing GPUs at it, rather than just using a scanner that worked, such as 13C MRI ?
Has MRI actually been proven to work with similar carbonized scrolls ?
Re: Reading Ancient Scrolls
#19I'm sorry - I just don't believe a word of it!
But there's a simple way to test it!
Roll up a newspaper or some sheets of paper, bake it until blackened, then pull out the charred remains and have this fancy tech tell us what it sees. You could easily verify whether what it says is true and whether any of the interpretions" correlate in any way with the newspaper that went in.
In fact, this would be the right way to iteratively develop your process, hone your software, etc - you would have some criteria with which gauge that this is viable. As opposed to a process that is bound to find something even in white noise.
Alternatively, you could just get ai trained on ancient greek, give it some noise, get it to generate some text, and call it an amazing ancient greek discovery!
> The entirety of the ancient corpus today can fit on a small bookshelf.
This person hasn't been to the local bookshop - there are many bookshelves worth of ancient texts. There are bibles, other religious writings, ancient plays, ancient history, science, philosophical works, etc. Or, Casey is right... in which case, what is the provenance of all those purportedly ancient texts?
Re: Reading Ancient Scrolls
#20I'm sorry - I just don't believe a word of it! But there's a simple way to test it! Roll up a newspaper or some sheets of paper, bake it until blackened, then pull out the charred remains and have this fancy tech tell us what it sees. You could easily verify whether what it says is true and whether any of the interpretions" correlate in any way with the newspaper that went in. In fact, this would be the right way to…
Its amazing to me that I think I'm stating the obvious - that you can't read burnt paper - and yet I'm downvoted, with no comment to explain why the downvote. I guess people like to live in a fantasy reality, where technology is capable of magic, and anyone who questions what sounds like a lovely story is just mean. Downvote!