15 JAN 2026
There are no facts, only interpretations.
I · THE OBJECT · BRITISH MUSEUM
Naked, winged, taloned, flanked by owls and standing on lions — this fired-clay panel shows a goddess whose name we still argue over, because her attributes fit three candidates.
II · THE IDEA · ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE
Expert systems encoded decades of human expertise rule by rule. Then simple learning algorithms given enough compute and data outperformed them, and the pattern repeated across every domain.
Written before source checking was enforced · facts in this lesson are unverified
III · THE WORK · ART HISTORY
Masaccio built a barrel-vaulted space in perfect perspective on a flat surface in 1420. Below the sacred figures he painted a skeleton in a tomb, to tell you what the geometry is for.
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