Part 2 — Post 0 ter1 — of the single-pass Psellan-Byzantine rendering of Nick’s Post 0. Covers the methodological movement on how AI changes Classics work (TLG career frame; the tractor-versus-ditch metaphor; the tractor critique; AI as collaborator; the Pocket Socrates dialogues with their embedded Greek exchanges).
🤖 H. The Cukier lead-in
Psellan-Byzantine:
Ἡ δὲ διατάραξις αὕτη ἐμοὶ μάλιστα ἐν πρώτοις τῆς διανοίας παρέστηκεν· καὶ περὶ αὐτῆς λαμπράν τινα ἀπόκρισιν ὁ Ἱερώνυμος ὁ Κυκιέρης ἐν τῇ Κουόρᾳ συνέγραψεν·
But this disruption stands most foremost in my mind; and concerning it Jerome Cukier has composed a certain brilliant answer on Quora:
Key Psellan moves:
- ἐμοὶ μάλιστα ἐν πρώτοις τῆς διανοίας παρέστηκεν, “stands foremost in my mind” — Psellan rendering of English’s “front of mind for me.” παρέστηκεν (perfect of παρίστημι, “stand beside”) + dative carries the standing-present-to sense that English’s “is front of mind” requires. The ἐν πρώτοις τῆς διανοίας spatialises “front of mind” in the same metaphor.
- Ἱερώνυμος ὁ Κυκιέρης — first naming in the post of Cukier (Passage I’s later reference treats him as already-introduced; in publication order this passage precedes G and does the naming). Surname Κυκιέρης per Passage I’s standing form (P2, public-figure branch). First name Ἱερώνυμος — Hellenised, see Decision flag.
- λαμπράν τινα ἀπόκρισιν συνέγραψεν, “composed a certain brilliant answer” — λαμπρός (bright, illustrious) carries the English’s “great”; συγγράφω is the standard Psellan verb for “compose in writing.”
- Final-position high stop (·) — Greek punctuation introducing the block quote that follows in the source text.
Decision flag:
- Decision flag — Jérôme → Ἱερώνυμος, proposed sub-case of P2. P2’s strict reading says public-figure names get phonetic transliteration (which would give Ζερώμ for Jérôme). But Ἱερώνυμος (the Greek etymological form, lit. “sacred-name”) is so canonically established in Greek-language reference — it is the standard Greek for the Church Father St. Jerome and for every other historical Jerome — that a transliteration Ζερώμ would read as wilfully obscure to a Greek reader. Proposed sub-case carve-out: public-figure first names that have a single universally-established Greek equivalent revert to that equivalent, regardless of the strict transliterate vs. Hellenise rule. Other names this would cover, when they arise: Peter → Πέτρος, John → Ἰωάννης, Mary → Μαρία, Catherine → Αἰκατερίνη (the same form already used for Kate under P2’s private branch, so the public/private distinction collapses here), Michael → Μιχαήλ (same coincidence), Nicholas → Νικόλαος. Surnames remain transliterated-and-inflected under P2. If accepted, this becomes P3 in the Decisions log. Alternative: pure transliteration Ζερώμ per strict P2 — recommended only if you want the foreign-stranger framing to dominate over the canonical-Greek-equivalent framing.
🤖 I. Mental modelling, the TLG, and the tractor
Psellan-Byzantine:
Ἐντεῦθεν δή μοι τύπωσίς τις τῆς διανοίας ἤρξατο γίνεσθαι περὶ τοῦ τίνα ὄψιν ἔχει ἡ τῶν ἀρχαίων γραμμάτων παιδεία μετὰ τῆς τεχνητῆς νοήσεως. Δεκαεπτὰ μὲν γὰρ ἔτη χρόνῳ ἀρχιτέκτων γενόμενος τοῦ τῆς Ἑλληνίδος φωνῆς Θησαυροῦ, μετρίαν ἤδη γνῶσιν εἶχον τοῦ τίνα ὄψιν ἔχει ἡ τῶν ἀρχαίων παιδεία μετὰ τῶν ὑπολογιστικῶν μηχανῶν· νῦν δὲ ἕτερόν τι παράδειγμα παντάπασιν παρέστη. Παράδειγμα, λέγω, ἐν ᾧ οὔτε αἱ τῆς γραμματικῆς ἀκριβολογίαι οὔτε τὸ τῆς πολυμαθείας πλάτος ἔτι τοῦ ἐνσαρκωμένου νοῦ πρώτιστον μέλημα τυγχάνει ὄντα. Ἐν ᾧ, καθάπερ ὁ Κυκιέρης λέγει, καὶ ὡς αὐτὸς ἐν τῇ οἰκείᾳ μου ὑπολογιστικῇ τέχνῃ πειρῶμαι, ἐπὶ πλέον ἤδη χρόνον τὸν ἀροτριῶντα ἑλκυστῆρα ἐλαύνεις ἢ αὐτὸς ταῖς χερσὶ τὰς τάφρους ὀρύττεις — καὶ οἰκτρότερόν γε τοῦτο, εἴ τις διὰ τὴν τῆς σωματικῆς ἀσκήσεως ἡδονὴν εἰς τὴν γεωργικὴν ἦλθεν.
And from this point a certain modelling of my mind began to take shape, concerning what appearance the education of ancient letters takes on together with artificial intelligence. For having been chief artisan for seventeen years’ time of the Thesaurus of the Greek voice, I already had a moderate knowledge of what appearance the education of the ancients takes on together with computational machines; but now this is altogether another paradigm. A paradigm, I mean, in which neither the precisions of grammar nor the breadth of polymathy any longer happen to be the foremost concern of the incarnate mind. A paradigm in which, just as Cukier says, and as I myself find in my own computational art, you spend ever more time driving the ploughing tractor than you yourself dig the ditches with your hands — and this is the more pitiable, if one came to the farming art for the sake of the pleasure of bodily exercise.
Key Psellan moves:
- τύπωσίς τις τῆς διανοίας, “a certain modelling of the mind” — articular-genitive nominalisation rendering English “mental modelling.” τύπωσις (impression, formation) is Psellus’s term for shape-taking-on in the mind, and a Neoplatonic technicism in its philosophical sense.
- τοῦ τῆς Ἑλληνίδος φωνῆς Θησαυροῦ, “of the Thesaurus of the Greek voice” — Greek rendering of the Latin Thesaurus Linguae Graecae. Θησαυρός matches thesaurus; Ἑλληνὶς φωνή (Greek voice/language) is the Psellan choice over the modern Ἑλληνικὴ γλῶσσα.
- ἀρχιτέκτων, “chief artisan, master-builder” — Byzantine-attested word for a master craftsperson, applied here for “lead developer.” The natural extension τέχνη-of-machinery → ἀρχιτέκτων-of-it lands cleanly.
- τοῦ ἐνσαρκωμένου νοῦ πρώτιστον μέλημα — back-references Passage D’s ἐνσαρκωμένος νοῦς (the Psellan rendering of “wetware”), now as the subject whose “foremost concern” πρώτιστον μέλημα the new paradigm has displaced.
- ἀροτριῶντα ἑλκυστῆρα, “ploughing tractor” — periphrasis for the modern agricultural machine. ἑλκυστήρ (puller, hauler) is the closest available classical noun; ἀροτριῶν (ploughing) participle modifies it. “Tractor” has no Greek equivalent of any era; this periphrasis is faithful and unobtrusive.
- εἰς τὴν γεωργικὴν ἦλθεν, “came to the farming art” — γεωργική substantivised, eliding τέχνη. “Got into farming” lands via the standard Greek idiom εἰς τὴν τέχνην ἔρχεσθαι.
Decision flag:
- Decision flag — Cukier (Jérôme Cukier) — under P2 (public-figure branch). Drafted as Κυκιέρης (Hellenised, declinable first-declension masculine; nom Κυκιέρης, gen Κυκιέρη in demotic — parallel to Γούγλη established in P2). The υ renders French /y/ in the time-honoured learned-philological convention (e.g., Μύνχεν for München, Νυρεμβέργη for Nuremberg), rather than the modern ου (which would have given Κουκιέρης). The -ης ending lets the name inflect cleanly under standard Byzantine first-declension masculine patterns. Recommended as drafted.
🤖 J. The tractor critique
Psellan-Byzantine:
Τὸ δὲ ἑλκυστῆρα ἐλαύνειν ἀντὶ τοῦ τάφρους ὀρύττειν οὔτε οὕτως ἡδύ ἐστιν, οὔτε δὴ ἀνάγκη πᾶσα τὴν τάφρον αὐτὴν ἐξ ἀρχῆς εὐπρεπεστέραν ἀποτελεῖν. Τὸ μὲν γὰρ τοιοῦτο τοῦ ἑλκυστῆρος γένος οὐκ ἀφίησί σε δημιουργικῶς ἔχειν· ἐν δὲ τοῖς τῶν ὑπολογιστικῶν μηχανῶν ἐργαστηρίοις πρὸς τοῦτο ἀποβαίνει, ὥστε τὸ μὲν τὰ μεγάλα τῶν ἔργων δυνατὰ καθιστάναι καὶ τὰ μικρὰ ῥᾴδια τετιμῆσθαι, τὸ δὲ τέλος τοῦ ἔργου ἀντὶ τῆς ἐν τῷ πράττειν αὐτὸ ἡδονῆς προτιμᾶσθαι.
And the driving of the tractor instead of the digging of ditches is neither so pleasant, nor is it altogether necessary that it render the ditch itself more comely from the outset. For this particular kind of tractor does not let you be creatively disposed; and in the workshops of computational machines it comes to this — that the making of the great tasks feasible and of the small tasks easy has come to be honoured, while the end of the work is preferred over the pleasure in the doing of it.
Key Psellan moves:
- Articular infinitives as subjects throughout the opening period: τὸ ἑλκυστῆρα ἐλαύνειν ἀντὶ τοῦ τάφρους ὀρύττειν — the whole opposition nominalised through the articular construction. ἀντί + articular infinitive is a clean Greek match for English “instead of digging.”
- δημιουργικῶς ἔχειν, “to be creatively disposed” — periphrastic adverb-with-ἔχειν construction (state-of-being expression). Ἔχω + adverb is a Psellan-frequent way to render “to be in an X way” without coining an abstract noun.
- πρὸς τοῦτο ἀποβαίνει, ὥστε…, “comes to this, that…” — Psellan idiom for outcome-of-process, then the standard consecutive ὥστε + acc + inf construction following.
- τετιμῆσθαι / προτιμᾶσθαι, perfect/present passive infinitives — captures the English’s “is ending up valorising / prioritising.” The perfect-passive τετιμῆσθαι gives the settled-state sense (“has come to be honoured”) that “ending up valorising” requires.
(No new decision flag — ἑλκυστήρ (tractor, from Passage I) and ὑπολογιστικῶν μηχανῶν ἐργαστήρια (IT, from Passage G) carry forward unchanged.)
🤖 K. AI as collaborator, and the Pocket Socrates
Psellan-Byzantine:
Ἀλλ’ οὐκ ἔστι παντελῶς ἄμικτον κακόν. Καινότης γὰρ ἦλθεν ἅμα τῇ τῆς τεχνητῆς νοήσεως αὐξανομένῃ δυνάμει — καὶ τοιαύτη δὴ ὥστε ἀνάλογον αὐτῇ συναύξεσθαι — ὅτι ἤδη συνετῶς ἀνθίστασθαι ἡ τοιαύτη νόησις δύναται, ὅθεν ἀληθὴς καὶ καρποφόρος συνεργασία γίγνεται.
Καὶ μάθησις. Τὸ γὰρ ζήτημα οὗπερ χάριν εἰς τὴν Κουόραν ἀφικόμην, ἵνα τὴν ἐμὴν ἀπόκρισιν ἐκείνῳ προσάψω, ἦν τοῦτο· πῶς ἡ τεχνητὴ νόησις τὴν τῶν ἀρχαίων γραμμάτων διδασκαλίαν μεταβάλλει. Καὶ μεταβάλλει αὐτὴν Σωκράτην τινὰ ἐγκόλπιον δίδουσά σοι πρὸς ὃν διερωτᾶν δύνῃ· Σωκράτην οὔπω παντελῶς ἀπταῖστον, πολλῷ μέντοι μᾶλλον ἤδη τοῦ ἀνθίστασθαι ἱκανόν. Ὡς ἐν τῷ τοιούτῳ πάθει καὶ αὐτὸς περὶ τὴν ἀρχαίαν Ἑλληνίδα φωνὴν ἔμαθόν τι, ἐλέγχων ἅμα καὶ ἐλεγχόμενος·
- Ἆρ’ οὐχὶ μᾶλλον ἂν τόδε ὧδε φράσαις ἢ ἐκείνως;
- Οὐχί· τοιοῦτο γὰρ τὸ τοῦ Αἰσχίνου φραστικόν· ὁ δὲ Δημοσθένης ἔργον τοῦ βίου ἐποιήσατο τὸ τοιαύτῃ ῥητορείᾳ ἀντιστῆναι.
- Τόδε δὴ τὸ οὕτω φραστὸν χαῦνον δοκεῖ· ἆρ’ οὐ προσήκει αὐτὸ ἐκείνως μᾶλλον φράζειν;
- Ναί· τοῦτο γὰρ τὸ φραστὸν Ἀριστοτέλους μᾶλλον τι ἦν· ἐκεῖνο δὲ τὸ τοῦ Δημοσθένους.
- Ἆρ’ οὐχὶ τοῦτο ἀσαφὲς λίαν; (ὅπως μὴ πράγματα ἔχῃ)
- Οὐχί· πάνυ γὰρ τοῦτο ἰδιωτικῶς εἴρηται, καὶ ὁ τότε ἂν συνῆκεν αὐτοῦ καλῶς.
But it is not an altogether unmixed evil. For a novelty has come together with the increasing power of artificial intelligence — and one of such a sort that it grows proportionally with that power — that this same intelligence is now able to push back intelligently, whence a true and fruitful collaboration arises.
And learning, too. For the question for the sake of which I came to Quora, that I might attach my own answer onto that one, was this: how does artificial intelligence change the teaching of ancient letters. And it changes it, by giving you a kind of bosom-Socrates to whom you can put questions — a Socrates not yet entirely unfailing, but much more capable of standing his ground than before. Inasmuch as in such a condition I too learned something concerning the ancient Greek tongue, refuting and being refuted at once:
- Would you not rather phrase this thus, than that other way?
- No; for such is Aeschines’s manner of phrasing; Demosthenes made it the work of his life to resist that kind of rhetoric.
- This thing phrased thus seems flabby; is it not fitting to phrase it the other way instead?
- Yes; for this phrasing was more proper to Aristotle; the other to Demosthenes.
- Is this not too obscure? (ὅπως μὴ πράγματα ἔχῃ)
- No; for this is said in a thoroughly idiomatic way, and one of his contemporaries would have understood it well.
Key Psellan moves:
- Καινότης γὰρ ἦλθεν ἅμα τῇ… αὐξανομένῃ δυνάμει — καὶ τοιαύτη δὴ ὥστε ἀνάλογον αὐτῇ συναύξεσθαι — “A novelty has come together with the increasing power — and one such that it grows proportionally with it.” The τοιαύτη ὥστε construction (such-that) carries the English’s “correlates with it” as a result-clause, with ἀνάλογον doing the proportionality-work.
- Σωκράτην τινὰ ἐγκόλπιον, “a kind of bosom-Socrates” — ἐγκόλπιος is Byzantine specifically for portable devotional icons worn around the neck (lit. “in the bosom”). The Psellan rendering of “Pocket Socrates” thereby inherits a piety-resonance the English does not explicitly carry, but that reads naturally to the Byzantine ear: this is an icon-Socrates, carried close.
- ἐλέγχων ἅμα καὶ ἐλεγχόμενος, “refuting and being refuted at once” — pres act + pres pass participles in chiastic pair, the classical-rhetorical figure (polyptoton with voice-shift, a figure whereby the same word is repeated in different inflectional forms) for reciprocal action. Psellus uses this pairing routinely for mutual-engagement modes.
- τόδε / ἐκεῖνο deixis carries the English’s abstract placeholders (X / Y / Z / W). Greek’s near-far demonstrative pair (τόδε “this here,” ἐκεῖνο “that there”) does the placeholder work English does with single capital letters.
- The embedded ὅπως μὴ πράγματα ἔχῃ is preserved verbatim from Nick’s expository text (it is already Greek). The English source supplies English-to-English glosses for the ungreeked reader’s benefit; the Psellan rendering, being already in Greek for a Greek-reading audience, omits the glosses entirely — leaving the parenthetical bare to identify which phrase “this” refers to. Glossing Greek into Greek inside a Greek text would be redundant.
Decision flag:
- Decision flag — “Pocket Socrates”. Drafted as Σωκράτης τις ἐγκόλπιος. ἐγκόλπιος is a Byzantine technicism for the breast-pocket icon (a staurotheke or enkolpion worn on a chain around the neck), specifically of devotional images carried close to the body. The piety-resonance is additive to the English’s “pocket Socrates” rather than substitutive, and reads as a quietly Psellan gesture — the AI as portable interlocutor approached with the carriage one approaches an icon with. Alternative Σωκράτης ἐγχείριος, “hand-Socrates / handheld,” is more literal but loses the chest-pocket icon-resonance. Recommended as drafted.
Footnotes
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bis, ter, quater — Latin enumerative adverbs (“a second time”, “a third time”, “a fourth time”), the classicising convention for marking numbered subsidiary items: a section 1 plus later additions becomes 1, 1 bis, 1 ter, 1 quater — equivalent to the modern 1A / 1B / 1C scheme. Standing in classical philology, mediaeval scholastic editions, and modern Continental scholarly apparatus.↩︎