Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Vesuvius Challenge 2023 Grand Prize awarded: we can read the first scroll

scrollprize.org

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

21–30 of 218 posts

Re: Vesuvius Challenge 2023 Grand Prize awarded: we can read the first scroll

#21

Post by gwern »

unsupp0rted wrote: post #13
bglazer wrote: post #8

One aspect of archaeology that I really find fascinating is the practice of leaving certain artifacts unexplored. The original discoverers of the scrolls tried to unroll a few, apparently found it was impossible without completely destroying the scroll, and then just left the rest undisturbed. Rather than pushing forward and destroying everything, they left these as a mystery for a future age. Two centuries (!!) late…

> Rather than pushing forward and destroying everything In the early days they wouldn't have accomplished anything by pushing forward, so it doesn't take all that much restraint. I'm more impressed by people in, say, the 1990s or early 2000s. They might've had a shot but there was still too much risk, so they restrained themselves until it was a safer bet.

Yeah, I can't give the King's men much credit here. They destroyed a lot of scrolls, and it was only because they weren't getting much of anything that they stopped and abandoned excavations or focused on digging out sculptures they could show off (many now in the Getty Museum - great museum, but I did feel a bit melancholy thinking about the scrolls while I was there in 2019).

Re: Vesuvius Challenge 2023 Grand Prize awarded: we can read the first scroll

#23

Post by leoc »

Apparntly the bad news is that the remaining scrolls most likely contain yet more Epicurean philosophy, maybe largely from not-top-rated guys like Philodemus. (Apparently it's possible that the library actually is, or incorporates, Philodemus' personal library.) https://twitter.com/DrFrancisYoung/status/175453630645602754...

Re: Vesuvius Challenge 2023 Grand Prize awarded: we can read the first scroll

#24

Post by dougmwne »

alach11 wrote: post #4

This is the coolest thing I've read this year. It reads like science fiction. Who would even imagine it's possible to read text from a 2000 year-old rolled up burnt-crisp paper?

It’s a 270 year archaeological and technological culmination. The scrolls were dug up in 1752. It took the collective developments of the Industrial Revolution, the sciences all our engineering and manufacturing prowess to discover, preserve and scan the scrolls. Then the final cherry on top of the current AI revolution that can create inferences and connections that are beyond the human mind to even understand. And out pops 2000 year-old wisdom of the ancients.

Re: Vesuvius Challenge 2023 Grand Prize awarded: we can read the first scroll

#25

Post by dougmwne »

leoc wrote: post #23

Apparntly the bad news is that the remaining scrolls most likely contain yet more Epicurean philosophy, maybe largely from not-top-rated guys like Philodemus. (Apparently it's possible that the library actually is, or incorporates, Philodemus' personal library.) https://twitter.com/DrFrancisYoung/status/175453630645602754...

That’s quite premature, but even if we are looking at a personal library containing only personal writings, you’d be looking at a massive increase of information on the ancient world, like a neural map of a single ancient mind that contained all their experiences and thoughts.

The worse case would be that it was 800 copies of the same scroll waiting to be sold off to other libraries.

Re: Vesuvius Challenge 2023 Grand Prize awarded: we can read the first scroll

#26

Post by Leo_Germond »

dougmwne wrote: post #25
leoc wrote: post #23

Apparntly the bad news is that the remaining scrolls most likely contain yet more Epicurean philosophy, maybe largely from not-top-rated guys like Philodemus. (Apparently it's possible that the library actually is, or incorporates, Philodemus' personal library.) https://twitter.com/DrFrancisYoung/status/175453630645602754...

That’s quite premature, but even if we are looking at a personal library containing only personal writings, you’d be looking at a massive increase of information on the ancient world, like a neural map of a single ancient mind that contained all their experiences and thoughts. The worse case would be that it was 800 copies of the same scroll waiting to be sold off to other libraries.

All the 847 chapters of Philodemus fan fiction of MLP (my little Plato)

Re: Vesuvius Challenge 2023 Grand Prize awarded: we can read the first scroll

#27

Post by clawoo »

codeulike wrote: post #18

Over 2000 years ago a chap called Philodemus sits in the library of a luxurious villa owned by a rich guy who likes collecting art and writing. He writes his thoughts on pleasure, and the relationship between the quantity of something and the pleasure that might derive from it. The scroll goes on the shelves with the others. He writes lots. At some point later the villa is covered by lava from mt vesuvius. 2000 years…

I have too wild imagination sometimes. I picture him with a shocked look on his face, similar to what one of the modern 'thinkers' would have if they forgot to clear their browser history and somehow someone restored it in the future.

"You recovered... uh... everything?"

Re: Vesuvius Challenge 2023 Grand Prize awarded: we can read the first scroll

#28

Post by dang »

Related:

First word discovered in unopened Herculaneum scroll by CS student - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=37857417 - Oct 2023 (207 comments)

The Vesuvius Challenge - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=35322809 - March 2023 (32 comments)

Vesuvius Challenge - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=35169869 - March 2023 (32 comments)

Re: Vesuvius Challenge 2023 Grand Prize awarded: we can read the first scroll

#29

Post by dang »

dang wrote: post #28

Related: First word discovered in unopened Herculaneum scroll by CS student - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=37857417 - Oct 2023 (207 comments) The Vesuvius Challenge - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=35322809 - March 2023 (32 comments) Vesuvius Challenge - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=35169869 - March 2023 (32 comments)

From today there's also this article, which maybe goes into more background (I haven't checked):

Can AI Unlock the Secrets of the Ancient World? - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=39261465 - Feb 2024 (1 comment)

and this tweet which presumably covers the same ground as OP:

The $700k Vesuvius Challenge prize has been won - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=39261933 - Feb 2024 (2 comments)

Re: Vesuvius Challenge 2023 Grand Prize awarded: we can read the first scroll

#30

Post by qingcharles »

kretaceous wrote: post #5

When I first came across this project on HN (early last year), I was taken aback by how impossible the project looked and how smart were people working on this. Despite seeing a few intelligent names behind the project, I subconsciously believed that this would at least take 5-10 years before a breakthrough. Today I sit with the same amazement, taken aback again, appreciating how ridiculously awesome this is. Congrat…

So many things that look insane are becoming a reality. You look at those scrolls burnt to a crisp and the idea of reading them is nonsense.

The fact I have a computer writing flowery alt text descriptions of my photos with unnerving accuracy is something I would not have predicted for another 20 years. But, here we are...

Post reply on HN