FROM PAPYRUS TO NEURAL NETWORKS: A DUMMY'S GUIDE TO INNOVATION AND PANIC
PART ONE. HOW SOCRATES LOOKED FOR THE DELETE BUTTON, AND THE ELITE GOT SPOOKED BY CROSSBOWS I happen to belong to that peculiar generation that somehow managed to survive the journey from leaky fountain pens to the omnipresent internet. When I was just starting out in this world, the smart folks around me were already predicting the end of days just because somebody invented a desktop calculator. Since then, the scenery has changed a bit: personal computers showed up, drones are buzzing around the sky, and now artificial intelligence is writing our texts for us. And you know what? The internet is once again crawling with respectable gentlemen — politicians, opinion leaders, and even men of science — who are predicting our imminent doom from these very same contraptions with a tremble in their voice. If you somehow got the notion that this panic is some unique achievement of our modern age, I hate to burst your bubble. Human nature is remarkably stubborn: we have always been scared sill...
