Lost books by ancient philosophers recovered from ‘unreadable’ scrolls
newscientist.comLost books by ancient philosophers recovered from 'unreadable' scrollsScrolls from the Roman library of Herculaneum that were carbonised by a volcanic eruption have been read in their entirety for the first time, thanks to scans and AI software✦ Read ad free and get the full MichaelFilter · $5.50Part of the MichaelFilter
Members read the whole piece — the writeup, the pull-lines, and the full transcript. Unlock access for $5.50.
Unlock the full reading · $5.50 →Researchers using the Vesuvius Challenge have used AI and high-resolution 3D scans to virtually unwrap carbonised Herculaneum scrolls without physically damaging them, recovering 1.5 metres of previously unreadable text. The recovered text appears to include lost Stoic philosophy possibly authored by Chrysippus, plus a new book by Philodemus, opening the door to decades of further recovery.
Teaching:
• Frame Ashtanga's tristana as a kind of 'virtual unwrapping' of the body: layers of attention reveal what brute force destroys
• Use the Chrysippus story in class themes on Stoicism and yama: source texts versus secondhand interpretation, parallel to learning from a teacher vs reading about practice
• Cue students that the 'impossible' postures often yield to finer resolution of attention, not harder effort, mirroring the 2-micrometre imaging breakthrough
Writing seeds:
• Essay: 'Virtual Unwrapping' as a metaphor for asana refinement, where higher-resolution attention beats forceful opening
• Shala Daily entry on lost lineage: what we lose when practice is transmitted only through critics, summaries, and secondhand cues
• Ashtanga.tech post on AI-assisted pattern recognition in scrolls as analogue to functional movement assessment: same data, new readability
• Philosophical piece pairing recovered Stoic ethics with Ashtanga's ethical limbs, on practice as systems literacy across millennia
Idea map:
• Systems literacy: the scroll, scanner, and AI form a stack where each layer enables the next, like breath-bandha-drishti
• Embodiment: the carbonised papyrus parallels the body holding legible information beneath apparent opacity
• Attention as resolution: practice as the discipline of seeing more finely rather than pushing harder
• Practice as method: iterative training of models echoes daily repetition refining the practitioner's perception
Source: https://www.newscientist.com/article/2531697-lost-books-by-ancient-philosophers-recovered-from-unreadable-scrolls/
Teaching:
• Frame Ashtanga's tristana as a kind of 'virtual unwrapping' of the body: layers of attention reveal what brute force destroys
• Use the Chrysippus story in class themes on Stoicism and yama: source texts versus secondhand interpretation, parallel to learning from a teacher vs reading about practice
• Cue students that the 'impossible' postures often yield to finer resolution of attention, not harder effort, mirroring the 2-micrometre imaging breakthrough
Writing seeds:
• Essay: 'Virtual Unwrapping' as a metaphor for asana refinement, where higher-resolution attention beats forceful opening
• Shala Daily entry on lost lineage: what we lose when practice is transmitted only through critics, summaries, and secondhand cues
• Ashtanga.tech post on AI-assisted pattern recognition in scrolls as analogue to functional movement assessment: same data, new readability
• Philosophical piece pairing recovered Stoic ethics with Ashtanga's ethical limbs, on practice as systems literacy across millennia
Idea map:
• Systems literacy: the scroll, scanner, and AI form a stack where each layer enables the next, like breath-bandha-drishti
• Embodiment: the carbonised papyrus parallels the body holding legible information beneath apparent opacity
• Attention as resolution: practice as the discipline of seeing more finely rather than pushing harder
• Practice as method: iterative training of models echoes daily repetition refining the practitioner's perception
Source: https://www.newscientist.com/article/2531697-lost-books-by-ancient-philosophers-recovered-from-unreadable-scrolls/
Notes from the field
No notes yet · members & customers welcome
- No notes yet. Be the first to leave one.
Join MichaelFilter
Michael Joel Hall’s daily reading — the field journal, critical-thinking cards, and synthesis — as a membership.
$5.50/month · cancel anytime
Join — $5.50/mo →Secure checkout on theyoga.club. A yearly option ($55) is available there too.