Think Nothing of It

Whenever a new technology drops, humans can tend to panic. In Plato’s Phaedrus (written in the fourth century BCE), Socrates tells the story of an Egyptian god who invents the art of writing and tries to bestow it as a gift to humanity. They’re less than thrilled. “This discovery of yours will create forgetfulness in the learners’ souls, because they will not use their memories,” Thamus, a local king, complains. “They will appear to be omniscient and will generally know nothing . . . having the show of wisdom without the reality.”