How do you read a library turned to ash?

We're delving into one of the ancient world's biggest mysteries: the Herculaneum scrolls. Computer scientist Brent Seales of the University of Kentucky talks about a journey that has taken him from Mars to Beowulf to the Dead Sea and beyond. AI has been key to finally reading what's inside the scrolls -- but this is a story about human ingenuity, and what it takes to make an impossible dream come true. The Herculaneum scrolls are hundreds of Greek and Latin papyri, buried by the Vesuvius eruption in 79 AD and dug up in the 1700s. The scrolls were crushed and carbonised; when anyone tried to read them, they crumbled. Scholars had to accept the rest would never be opened. This is the only intact library we have from the classical world – complete texts, direct from the pens of ancient scribes. Yet we can’t read them. Until now. These unopenable scrolls are now being read, through the Vesuvius Challenge, which offers prizes for teams using AI to find the ink in X-ray scans. I’ve written several articles on this, and the pace of discovery has been jawdropping: scholars could soon read the whole library. But solving this problem hasn't just been about switching on AI. For me, the truly fascinating story is the 20 years of imagination, invention and persuasion that led to this point, all essentially due to one man who persevered even when everyone else thought the idea was crazy.Brent Sealeshttps://educelab.engr.uky.edu/w-brent-seales Vesuvius Challengehttps://scrollprize.org/ Schmidt Scienceshttps://www.schmidtsciences.org/focus-area-ai/My articles:Scaling up the Vesuvius Challenge: Apr 2025https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-025-01087-yAI could rewrite history: Jan 2025https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-024-04161-zFirst passages revealed: Feb 2024https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-024-00346-8Brent Seales' quest: Jul 2018https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/buried-ash-vesuvius-scrolls-are-being-read-new-xray-technique-180969358/ Journal papers:Reading En-Gedi scrollhttps://www.science.org/doi/full/10.1126/sciadv.1601247 Recovering Herculaneum inkhttps://journals.plos.org/plosone/article/?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0215775*** To support us, please rate & review the show!*** Subscribe for new episodes every Mon*** Follow us on Instagram @wildthoughts_pod*** Edited highlights on YouTubehttps://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLhB4lyBDyjTliuz_h5oHwN6H8HoxS7qWL WTWTA is produced by Julian Mayers at Yada Yadahttps://www.yada-yada.net/ Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.