The deep history of AI began 3,000 years ago

"In 58 BC, Cicero's house was ransacked. Returning from exile, the Roman statesman found his property vandalized; his scrolls jumbled, torn, and scattered. A library assumes an order, a schema, something that renders it sensible and accessible. Cicero's was chaos. Enter Tyrannio, a Greek specialist in literature and libraries, owner of some 30,000 scrolls and famed expert on Aristotle - in fact, the same man responsible for restoring the philosopher's tattered library after it was hauled to Rome."

"Tyrannio stepped in to sort through Cicero's mess. He identified volumes, repaired damage, organized the scrolls, and created title tags. Cicero marveled at the transformation. "You will be surprised at Tyrannio's excellent arrangement in my library," Cicero wrote to his friend Atticus. When the work was complete, his appreciation verged on the mystical. "Since Tyrannio has arranged my books," he wrote, "the house seems to have acquired a soul.""

"Cicero used the Latin word - not "soul," but "mind." Another translation says the house "recovered its intelligence." And he's not talking about Tyrannio's intelligence, but rather the intelligence Tyrannio imposed on the library, a structure that reflected Tyrannio but now existed independent of him. Once organized, Cicero's library possessed a discernible - even if artificial - intelligence. It now had a mind of its own."

In 58 BC Cicero's house was ransacked, leaving scrolls jumbled, torn, and scattered. Tyrannio, a Greek specialist with about 30,000 scrolls and experience restoring Aristotle's library, sorted the chaos. He identified volumes, repaired damage, organized scrolls, and created title tags. The reorganization imposed a durable structure that conveyed coherence and relationships among works. The ordered library began to suggest connections, reveal patterns, answer questions, and synthesize ideas, thereby extending intellectual capacity beyond a single mind. The library's arrangement projected intelligence independent of its organizer and became usable by others.

Read at Big Think