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

121–130 of 218 posts

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

#121

Post by yourapostasy »

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?

I’m now wavering a bit on my earlier dismissal of people freezing their bodies for an indeterminate future revival. I could probably get into a science fiction story with this premise:

Instead of relying upon machinery, some zillionaire has their body dry frozen and stashed in a lunar south pole crater, with a foundation funding interstellar propulsion research to move the body to the coldest stable points discovered along the way towards the Boomerang Nebula (1° Kelvin) and research to revive back from burnt-crisp state.

The foundation incites all sorts of advancements along the way like working out practical fusion and ever more exotic energy generation, AGI, gravity manipulation, Drexlerian nanotech, Dyson swarm, star wisps, self-modifying bodies and so on, in its quixotic quest to fulfill its mandate.

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

#122

Post by jobs_throwaway »

fragmede wrote: post #110
BenFranklin100 wrote: post #107

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not to be argumentative, but $1M isn’t very much money, certainly not for a project of this scope. It’s a testament to the creativity, competence, and dedication of those involved they’ve gotten this far with such little funding. Hopefully their early success will attract more resources to this very worthy project.

it's $700k divided three ways, too. $234k is well within FAANG compensation range, but you get to work on such an awesome project.

FAANG compensation range but no benefits and 100x the risk

Make it $8m or $12m and FAANG employees can actually start to justify working on it seriously from a money perspective

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

#123

Post by jobs_throwaway »

wl wrote: post #74
BlueTemplar wrote: post #62

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If the prospect is very high to multiply by several times the total remaining classical works, I doubt that the money will be particularly hard to find ?

David W. Packard (HP heir) has been trying to throw money at doing this for years, so the money isn't as much of an issue as you'd think. The larger issue is that the locals don't want digging underneath their buildings, no matter how careful the excavators are. Also, all the money that would be necessary to excavate has made the project a target for the mafia who wants to get their share.

> the money isn't as much of an issue as you'd think. The larger issue is that the locals don't want digging underneath their buildings, no matter how careful the excavators are

This sounds like the money IS a huge issue. How expensive can it be to buy out the locals? We're talking about priceless cultural artifacts

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

#124

Post by tysam_and »

jdminhbg wrote: post #12

Here is the link to their "master plan" to read all of the excavated scrolls: https://scrollprize.org/master_plan It looks like there are two main bottlenecks to reading more: the need for manual intervention in segmenting the scanned scrolls, and the cost in scanning new scrolls.

Funding is a huge one as well. Funding is the wheel that drives the project (source, have been hanging around the project people for a little while).

If you know anyone that would help chip in for the Phase 2 of the project (scaling up, please let Nat know! (not directly affiliated with the project management team, just pointing to him as a great contact for that.... <3 :')))) ) )

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

#125

Post by ssnistfajen »

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?

I remember first reading about Herculaneum Papyri more than a decade ago, and pondered about them being read one day. After all, research into virtually unwrapping these scrolls had been ongoing since 2007 (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Herculaneum_papyri#Virtual_unr...), but I certainly did not expect it to happen so soon. Exponential technology acceleration once again proves itself true.

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

#126

Post by echelon »

jtchang wrote: post #6

“Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.” Absolutely insane the level of wizardry being applied here to turn a lump of blackened, charred scrolls into readable text. Having only cursory knowledge with machine learning are some of the techniques used in the article only recently discovered or have they been around for a while? Is it due to us having reached an inflection point with these…

> Absolutely insane the level of wizardry being applied here to turn a lump of blackened, charred scrolls into readable text.

Imagine what we'll be able to do to brains, dead or alive, in 100 years.

And in 10,000, maybe we'll be reconstructing the light cone. Maybe that's what we are right now. (Not serious, but it's a fun thought experiment.)

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

#127

Post by f5ve »

s0rce wrote: post #114
imranq wrote: post #113

The methods are incredible, but it seems like the text is ordinary and nothing to write home about

Not too surprising, but I like the random ancient texts https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Complaint_tablet_to_Ea-n%C4%81...

There really is one for everything:

https://xkcd.com/2758/

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

#128

Post by riffraff »

tysam_and wrote: post #124
jdminhbg wrote: post #12

Here is the link to their "master plan" to read all of the excavated scrolls: https://scrollprize.org/master_plan It looks like there are two main bottlenecks to reading more: the need for manual intervention in segmenting the scanned scrolls, and the cost in scanning new scrolls.

Funding is a huge one as well. Funding is the wheel that drives the project (source, have been hanging around the project people for a little while). If you know anyone that would help chip in for the Phase 2 of the project (scaling up, please let Nat know! (not directly affiliated with the project management team, just pointing to him as a great contact for that.... <3 :')))) ) )

It seems "weird" none of the mega rich has committed a few million dollars for this, it looks like a very good way to build a legacy while benefiting humanity, and e.g. Bezos would probably find a million dollars behind the couch pillows.

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

#129

Post by xvector »

echelon wrote: post #126
jtchang wrote: post #6

“Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.” Absolutely insane the level of wizardry being applied here to turn a lump of blackened, charred scrolls into readable text. Having only cursory knowledge with machine learning are some of the techniques used in the article only recently discovered or have they been around for a while? Is it due to us having reached an inflection point with these…

> Absolutely insane the level of wizardry being applied here to turn a lump of blackened, charred scrolls into readable text. Imagine what we'll be able to do to brains, dead or alive, in 100 years. And in 10,000, maybe we'll be reconstructing the light cone. Maybe that's what we are right now. (Not serious, but it's a fun thought experiment.)

This is why I am going for cryopreservation if I ever have the luxury of choosing the way I die.

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

#130

Post by jacquesm »

gwern wrote: post #103
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…

Epicureans were atomists ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Epicureanism#Physics ), so if you explained it to him, he might not be nearly as shocked as most people of the era would be. Epicureans also tended to invoke extremely insubstantial 'images' composed of especially tiny gossamer arrangements of atoms as explanations for things like dreams, and you can see how well that would work as an analogy with using X-rays…

It's a testimony to the power of mind equivalent to Einstein's 'Gedankenexperimenten'. The only reason they got some of it totally wrong is because they lacked the scientific apparatus to test their hypothesis, but they were on the right track.
Post reply on HN