Luckily they explained what papyrus is. The BBC is now doing ELI5.
First glimpse inside burnt scroll after 2k years
31–40 of 95 posts
Re: First glimpse inside burnt scroll after 2k years
#32Earlier quoted context omitted.
That CS student was Luke Farritor -- now part of the infamous DOGE team.
I get the ideologues here being mad… but I don’t get mad to the point where people need to pretend this guy isn’t highly intelligent. Doesn’t it make it better that there are really sharp people on the “DOGE” team. Shouldn’t people be more mad at dummies doing it?
It's good that smart people are involved if we take it at face value that they're trying increase "government efficiency," as opposed to, say, dismantling the welfare and regulatory state; if the latter are their aim, and if we don't want them to accomplish such a goal, we should not be cheered to learn that they're such clever lads.
Re: First glimpse inside burnt scroll after 2k years
#33[flagged]
What are you talking about?
The BBC doesn’t get any USAID funding. The BBC News website is supported by UK television license payers, and for non-UK folks it has banner ads which help pay for hosting and other costs.
There's a separate non-profit, BBC Media Action (formerly the BBC World Service Trust) with a completely different remit to the BBC that receives some USAID funding, but is mainly funded by the UK government.
Re: First glimpse inside burnt scroll after 2k years
#34Earlier quoted context omitted.
I get the ideologues here being mad… but I don’t get mad to the point where people need to pretend this guy isn’t highly intelligent. Doesn’t it make it better that there are really sharp people on the “DOGE” team. Shouldn’t people be more mad at dummies doing it?
Who is saying he isn’t intelligent? And can’t smart people do bad things?
Are things you disagree with bad by definition or assumption? Or because you were told… because unless you have a front row seat, everything you know is because someone else already parsed that info for you.
Re: First glimpse inside burnt scroll after 2k years
#35Earlier quoted context omitted.
I get the ideologues here being mad… but I don’t get mad to the point where people need to pretend this guy isn’t highly intelligent. Doesn’t it make it better that there are really sharp people on the “DOGE” team. Shouldn’t people be more mad at dummies doing it?
It's good that smart people are involved if we take it at face value that they're trying increase "government efficiency," as opposed to, say, dismantling the welfare and regulatory state; if the latter are their aim, and if we don't want them to accomplish such a goal, we should not be cheered to learn that they're such clever lads.
> dismantling the welfare and regulatory state
Pretty sure that's exactly what the US voted for in the last election, considering that was pretty explicitly promised. I think most of the US is cheering them on as they do it.
Re: First glimpse inside burnt scroll after 2k years
#36In the future, perhaps we may see "first glimpse inside burnt floppy disk after 2k years"?
Re: First glimpse inside burnt scroll after 2k years
#37How do we know the AI output is accurate? What observable evidence is there? From the article:
> Inside this huge machine, which is called a synchrotron, electrons are accelerated to almost the speed of light to produce a powerful X-ray beam that can probe the scroll without damaging it. ...
> The scan is used to create a 3D reconstruction, then the layers inside the scroll - it contains about 10m of papyrus - have to be identified. ...
> After that artificial intelligence is used to detect the ink. It's easier said than done - both the papyrus and ink are made from carbon and they're almost indistinguishable from each other.
> So the AI hunts for the tiniest signals that ink might be there, then this ink is painted on digitally, bringing the letters to light.
Re: First glimpse inside burnt scroll after 2k years
#38They said that the work was a Greek Epicurean work, but described it as finding fulfillment in the pleasures of life. The Greek Epicureans were of the opinion that avoiding pain and suffering was the object of ethical philosophy, which is not the same thing, at all.
Re: First glimpse inside burnt scroll after 2k years
#39Earlier quoted context omitted.
Who is saying he isn’t intelligent? And can’t smart people do bad things?
Are things you disagree with bad by definition or assumption? Or because you were told… because unless you have a front row seat, everything you know is because someone else already parsed that info for you.
> unless you have a front row seat, everything you know is because someone else already parsed that info for you.
Taking this to its logical conclusion, it is pointless for us to discuss anything we're not actively doing.
Re: First glimpse inside burnt scroll after 2k years
#40How do we know the AI output is accurate? What observable evidence is there? From the article: > Inside this huge machine, which is called a synchrotron, electrons are accelerated to almost the speed of light to produce a powerful X-ray beam that can probe the scroll without damaging it. ... > The scan is used to create a 3D reconstruction, then the layers inside the scroll - it contains about 10m of papyrus - have t…
The ML ink-detection models aren't spitting out Greek text. They're just predicting ink locations, which can be calibrated and cross-checked by manual inspection with the original. (E.g., an earlier article showed how ink particles showed up as a shift in texture.) They operate on a lower level than letters and words, so if the ink does correspond to Greek letters that come out to recognizable Greek words forming sensible passages, it's good evidence that the output is correct.
Presumably, it's possible for errors to slip through, but human labelers can similarly make errors.