The Ancient Philosophers Are Dreaming of Having The Tools We Have

I had a simple thought the other day: Imagine giving our best ancient philosophers the technology we have today and seeing what they could come up with. If they could accomplish all of the following without our modern tools, consider what they could do with those tools:

1. Aristotle developed the foundations of logic and ethics without any modern software to organize all of his writings and ideas.
   
2. Galileo figured out the heliocentric model without modern computer programs that allow you to simulate vast areas of outer space.
   
3. Newton formulated the laws of motion and gravity without advanced computational tools that we now have on our smartphone apps.
   
4. Da Vinci envisioned flying machines and anatomical studies without access to modern engineering or YouTube videos to show real examples.
   
5. Einstein developed the theory of relativity without the help of supercomputers to crunch complex equations.

The point is: considering how much we have now, there are no excuses. The potential to do something amazing is right in front of you, especially considering the devices coming to market, the advances in AI, all powering our next move, our raw potential by x100… especially if we know how to wield it.

Written by Stefan Cheplick, a fintech builder and writer with experience at Stocktwits and TradingView. Background and published work.