Comments on: ‘Can Computers Ever Read Ancient Texts?’ http://www.currentepigraphy.org/2007/08/04/can-computers-ever-read-ancient-texts/ ISSN 1754-0909 (Online) Thu, 20 Nov 2008 18:46:54 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.5.1 By: Melissa Terras http://www.currentepigraphy.org/2007/08/04/can-computers-ever-read-ancient-texts/#comment-1248 Melissa Terras Mon, 06 Aug 2007 09:42:13 +0000 http://www.currentepigraphy.org/2007/08/04/can-computers-ever-read-ancient-texts/#comment-1248 Thanks for this summary, Gabriel... I think that pretty much sums up my stance towards the question. Although I think we need to examine what we mean by "read" - there are different ways of reading, which psychologists have known about for years, and to think about what the act of reading an ancient text actually means. I'd hesitate to say that computers could *never* read ancient texts - who knows what technological advances are just around the corner - but in the case of the Vindolanda texts, we are hampered by what we know about the language and letter forms of the period - with every document we read, our knowledge increases - so we can only "teach" the computer to read what is known- unless some new and novel techniques are used which work in a different way to the way that humans do - my approach was to try and mimic, as best we are able, the way that experts read ancient texts, using the evidence to hand. The system needs further development in nearly every area - I hope with the new project that palaeographic markup will come to the masses, featuring an online tool and databases.... I do firmly believe that attempting to solve difficult real world humanities problems can bring new understanding to both humanists and computing scientists/engineers. The current financial situation facing good, robust research into IT for the humanities is worrying - but thats another lecture. Melissa Thanks for this summary, Gabriel… I think that pretty much sums up my stance towards the question. Although I think we need to examine what we mean by “read” - there are different ways of reading, which psychologists have known about for years, and to think about what the act of reading an ancient text actually means.

I’d hesitate to say that computers could *never* read ancient texts - who knows what technological advances are just around the corner - but in the case of the Vindolanda texts, we are hampered by what we know about the language and letter forms of the period - with every document we read, our knowledge increases - so we can only “teach” the computer to read what is known- unless some new and novel techniques are used which work in a different way to the way that humans do - my approach was to try and mimic, as best we are able, the way that experts read ancient texts, using the evidence to hand.

The system needs further development in nearly every area - I hope with the new project that palaeographic markup will come to the masses, featuring an online tool and databases….

I do firmly believe that attempting to solve difficult real world humanities problems can bring new understanding to both humanists and computing scientists/engineers. The current financial situation facing good, robust research into IT for the humanities is worrying - but thats another lecture.

Melissa

]]>