this post was submitted on 18 Aug 2023
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What if we never found the Rosetta Stone and could not read ancient Egyptian hieroglyphics. Could computers or AI decipher them today?

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[–] Lemmylefty 13 points 1 year ago (1 children)

That’s a good point, and you’re right that I’m conflating them.

What other elements of AI would you imagine would be useful here?

[–] [email protected] 9 points 1 year ago

You'd have to ask people who work in the AI field, and, alas, I'm not one of those people.

There has been a lot of language work on attempting to reconstruct the original Indo-European Language, using combinations of pattern recognition and statistical analysis of child languages. Those sorts of tools could aid in deciphering a dead written language.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Proto-Indo-European_language

However, another written language called Linear-A (of the ancient Minoans) has yet to be deciphered, despite lots of attempts at trying.
https://www.thoughtco.com/linear-writing-system-of-the-minoans-171553

So:
¯\(ツ)