From Hieroglyphs to Algorithms: Ancient Egypt May Have Predicted Where AI Is Headed Next.

Generative algorithms may reveal deeper insights about our own intelligence evolution; But there is more!

By: Barmak Heshmat

Tutankhamun mask on the left plastic Ex Machina themed Nefertiti generated by AI on the right.

It’s January 2023 and yet another new set of mummies with beautiful drawings and sculptures are found that belong to whopping 4300 years ago. But why were Egyptians so creative and visually triggered, what was it so different in the desert environment some 4000 years ago that made them come up with these ideas. How was their intelligence triggered in that way?

Archeologists found belonged to Khnum-djed-ef, who was a priest, an inspector of officials and a supervisor of nobles in the pyramid complex of Unas, a pharaoh who ruled in the mid-24th century B.C.

Fast forward to 2023 the world is now being showered with generative AI algorithms: GPT chat, Midjourney, Dall-E etc. A good chunk of these programs use random noise and random generators as a key ingredient to come up with images, text and so on. One of such algorithms is the Stable diffusion algorithm that uses random noise and iterative denoising mechanism to tune or “hallucinate” into a certain shape or form. In the machine learning and AI field the term “hallucinate” is now commonly used and refers to an erroneous or divergent correction or interpolation for a desired signal. Hallucination is a key ingredient in creativity, a key that may have been enabled by narcotic plants or even highly sugar concentrate plants like dates and grapes that were found around in the desert area for tens of thousands of years.

Dates and Poppy flowers depictions in found ancient Egypt artifacts. These artifacts are from two different times in history. The date plant which is originally from Egypt dates back to pre-civilization area.

Just imagine what a hand full of dates (each containing as high as 16 grams of sugar) would have done to those early tribes brain in a food scarce environment of north east Africa. I think to those early humans, the palm tree dates weren’t just food; they were gifts of heavens. A sudden rush of energy that allows brain to now suddenly have much more than just survival to think about, a golden oppertunity to start thinking divergently.

If that divergent thinking has been the trigger point of civilized intelligence as we know it, what lies ahead with technologies like generative AI? What happens when we have suddenly this rush of intelligence. Could it be that as intelligence becomes a commodity, new hierarchies and monarchies of intelligence start forming in the digital domain (metaphorically speaking)? This is like how there were clusters of cultures where there were resources for reproduction and how there was competition and even wars between the king of north and king of south in ancient Egypt.

Image of an AI female robot being touched by ancient Egyptian statue generated by Midjourney. The hands and eyes still need a bit of work and the program got the order in reverse but its a really compelling results.

Could it be that different patches of intelligence start to compete with each other and taper and evolve toward environmental and application based resources and factors to get advantage over each other, leading to a whole ecosystem of new species of intelligence sprouting into being? If that is the case what are the factors that can enable that or maybe even disable or prevent that? In the next article, I will write a bit more about that. But in either case; from my perspective the sprouting or evolution of real intelligence in humans has definitely a lot of parallels with the evolution of artificial intelligence, and its projected evolution. And also how it should be dealt with.

Could it be that different patches of intelligence start to compete with each other? In the next article, I will write a bit more about factors that can

Next Article in this series:

AI in the Shadow of the Pyramids: An Evolutionary Match Made in History