This essay about how we’ve gotten the ancient Greeks all wrong was fantastic. Many of my favorite college courses were in the Classics, yet this strain of study never came up.1 The essay’s gist is a discussion of the role the Greek alphabet played in the culture’s development of thought.
The Greeks had no more aptitude for abstract thinking than anyone else; they merely stumbled on the technology to unlock it, technology which has since spread to become global.
It pairs beautifully with this chapter on animism and the alphabet. If the alphabet opened new modes of thought, then this chapter (written 29 years before!) seems the, “Yes, and let me tell you what we lost…” rebuttal. It’s poetic, and more than a look toward nostalgia.
We may be sure that the shapes of our consciousness are shifting in tandem with the technologies that engage our senses—much as we can now begin to discern, in retrospect, how the distinctive shape of Western philosophy was born of the meeting between the human senses and the alphabet in ancient Greece.
If I were to go back to school or full-time study, I’d most want to understand the relationship between technology and thought. The interplay of tools with our attention and mental pathways is why I think we underestimate the value of friction. It’s that relationship that is what feels most uncanny about LLMs. In their defaults there’s a vapid obsequiousness alongside, yes, incredible power. History rhymes again, as we gain…and lose.
Thanks to Gracie for sharing “Animism and the Alphabet” and for last week’s thought-provoking conversation.
- Perhaps making the author’s point that it’s “academic poison.” ↩︎
