Listening to Marc Andreessen talk about his Techno-Optimist Manifesto on the Basis for American Innovation’s Dynamist podcast, I used to be struck by his repetition of one thing that’s within the manifesto and is totally fallacious. “The parable of Prometheus – in varied up to date types like Frankenstein, Oppenheimer, and Terminator – haunts our nightmares,” he writes.1 On the podcast, he elaborated by saying that, though fireplace has many advantages, the Prometheus fable focuses on its use as a weapon. He stated one thing comparable in a June publish known as “Why AI Will Save the World”:
“The worry that know-how of our personal creation will stand up and destroy us is deeply coded into our tradition. The Greeks expressed this worry within the Prometheus Fantasy – Prometheus introduced the harmful energy of fireplace, and extra usually know-how (“techne”), to man, for which Prometheus was condemned to perpetual torture by the gods.”
No. No. No. No.
Prometheus is punished for loving humankind. He stole fireplace to thwart Zeus’ plans to get rid of humanity and create a brand new subordinate species. He’s a benefactor who sacrifices himself for our good. His punishment is an indicator not of the risks of fireplace however of the tyranny of Zeus.
Prometheus is crafty and smart. His identify means foresight. He is aware of what he’s doing and what the possible penalties might be.
Ultimately his tortures finish when he’s rescued by the hero Herakles (aka Hercules), who shoots the eagle charged with consuming Prometheus’ liver each day, just for it to develop again to be eaten once more.
The Greeks honored Prometheus. They celebrated technē. They appreciated the presents of civilization.
The traditional fable of Prometheus is just not a cautionary story. It’s a reminder that technē raises human beings above brutes. It’s a fable based in gratitude.
Right here’s a passage from the magnificent translation of Aeschylus’ Prometheus Certain by poet John Scully and Aeschylus scholar C. John Herington:
I gave them intelligence,
I made them
masters of their very own thought.
I inform this
not towards humankind, however solely to indicate
how loving my presents have been …
Women and men trying
noticed nothing,
they listened
and didn't hear,
however like shapes in a dream dragging out their lengthy lives
bewildered
they made hodgepodge of every part, they knew nothing of constructing
brick-knitted
homes the solar warms,
nor how one can work in wooden.
They swarmed like bitty ants
in dugouts
in sunless caves.
They hadn’t any certain indicators of winter, nor spring
flowering,
nor late summer time when the crops are available in.
All their work was work with out thought,
till I taught them to see
what had been laborious to see:
the place and when the celebs
rise and set.
What’s extra, for them I invented
NUMBER: knowledge
above all different.
And the painstaking, placing collectively of
LETTERS: to be their reminiscence
of every part, to be their Muses’
mom, their
handmaid!
And I used to be the primary to place brute beasts
beneath the yoke, match them out
with pack saddles, so they may take
the heaviest burdens off the backs of human beings.
Horses I broke and harnessed
to the chariot shaft
in order that they liked their reins, they confirmed off
the pleasure and wealth of their house owners.
I, I alone invented
the seawandering
linen wingd
chariots for sailors.
All these units, I invented for human beings.
I gave them intelligence,
I made them
masters of their very own thought.
I inform this
not towards humankind, however solely to indicate
how loving my presents have been …
Women and men trying
noticed nothing,
they listened
and didn't hear,
however like shapes in a dream dragging out their lengthy lives
bewildered
they made hodgepodge of every part, they knew nothing of constructing
brick-knitted
homes the solar warms,
nor how one can work in wooden.
They swarmed like bitty ants
in dugouts
in sunless caves.
They hadn’t any certain indicators of winter, nor spring
flowering,
nor late summer time when the crops are available in.
All their work was work with out thought,
till I taught them to see
what had been laborious to see:
the place and when the celebs
rise and set.
What’s extra, for them I invented
NUMBER: knowledge
above all different.
And the painstaking, placing collectively of
LETTERS: to be their reminiscence
of every part, to be their Muses’
mom, their
handmaid!
And I used to be the primary to place brute beasts
beneath the yoke, match them out
with pack saddles, so they may take
the heaviest burdens off the backs of human beings.
Horses I broke and harnessed
to the chariot shaft
in order that they liked their reins, they confirmed off
the pleasure and wealth of their house owners.
I, I alone invented
the seawandering
linen wingd
chariots for sailors.
All these units, I invented for human beings.
All human tradition comes from Prometheus.
These aren’t simply an English main’s pedantic quibbles. The tales we inform ourselves matter. That even a “techno-optimist” inverts the Promethean fable reveals how deeply hostility to know-how has penetrated our collective consciousness.
For 1000’s of years, the parable of Prometheus has taught us to understand the presents of technē and the prices that bringing these presents can precise. Prometheus connects our high-tech current with our poetic previous. He reminds us of the continuities of human tradition in addition to its flux. He unites the Two Cultures.
In that spirit, I cherish the hope that, as synthetic intelligence makes the library of Herculaneum decipherable, we are going to recuperate the misplaced sequels to Prometheus Certain—an acceptable fruit of the newest Promethean present.2
Virginia Postrel is a author with a specific curiosity within the intersection of commerce, tradition, and know-how. Creator of “The Future and Its Enemies,” “The Substance of Fashion,” “The Energy of Glamour,” and, most lately, “The Material of Civilization.” This essay was initially printed on Virginia’s e-newsletter on Substack.
Banner picture courtesy creator: “Midjourney doesn’t actually comply with instructions however I just like the outcomes: ‘Greek god Prometheus coming down from mountain prime, carrying torch of fireplace. Small human figures, shivering and bare within the foreground on the backside of the mountain. Stylized fashionable depiction, daylight.’
