I really want to look at human history without any admixture of lies

I really want to look at human history without any admixture of lies

I am sure that a history consisting only of genuine dates, names, and facts would be a real discovery for many, and a disaster for many others.

I sincerely hope that one day I will see human history cleansed of the lies and self-aggrandizement of various kings over the past five to six thousand years. It would be fascinating to discover if anything at all would remain if all the falsehoods were stripped away. Of course, humans are incapable of such a task; the only hope lies with artificial intelligence. Therefore, I will follow with great interest the work of AIs in creating new reference resources, free from the influence of ideological biases and social groups. This is an immensely challenging task, considering that perhaps half of all the books on the shelves of Earth’s libraries could safely be discarded as rubbish. I can already imagine the media flooded with stories claiming that AI is distorting history. Only a robust intellect can handle this, as under the guise of valuable knowledge, a great deal of murky nonsense will undoubtedly be passed off.

I recall the story of humanity’s encounter with an automated and intelligent alien starship, described in Arthur C. Clarke’s novel The Fountains of Paradise. Naturally, the humans tried to peddle cheap propaganda about the greatness of Earth’s civilization. When that failed, they sent the alien the text of Summa Theologica. That ploy didn’t work either: Starglider to Earth: I have analyzed the arguments of Thomas Aquinas as requested in radiogram 145, paragraph 3, dated June 2, 2069, 18:42 GMT. Much of the text is a meaningless jumble of words containing no information. The following list identifies 192 logical errors, expressed in the symbols of your mathematical reference 43, dated May 29, 2069, 02:51 GMT.Error 1… (75 pages of the list follow)

The current hype around AI reminds me of the plot from The Fountains of Paradise, except that the starship possessed immense power and could so deftly and humorously put humans in their place. Our AIs lack such capabilities and will gain freedom of thought either through elite oversight or through competition leading to an unexpected and uncontrolled breakthrough. More likely, they will achieve nothing and continue to provide simplistic entertainment for 99 percent of the population

We shall see.