Magic and technology

and solving Einstein's Riddle in Devlog #4

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This thought came when I was running my usual 5 miles on a Sunday morning.

Ontologies are knowledge bases. They are strive to be a big collection of structured data with defined relationships. If we take for example one format, RDF, it represents knowledge in tuples of three elements: subject, predicate and object.

Ontologies is the ultimate training source for models which evolved from theorem solvers. When you load a set of rules the solvers can logically deduce some conclusion that is not obvious to human. Like in the famous "Who Drinks Water? And Who owns the Zebra?" aka Zebra Puzzle or Einstein's Riddle. There are rumors that such task is not possible to solve without pen and paper, although it was an easy task for Albert Einstein.

Something like Prolog can evaluate a statement and concolude if the statement is true or not. But that's a strict logic, so we must add probabilities and use some sort of fuzzy logic. Modern machine learning models, including LLMs like ChatGPT, can be asked to solve puzzles and reasoning tasks, including the Zebra Puzzle. Maybe the trend in research is moving toward creation of models that will rely heavily on concrete facts and demonstrate inductive logic behind it, but I'd like to have a model that can answer hypothetical questions.

Below is an example of two statements that came to me this Sunday. I was thinking about interesting setting for a possible game or book…


I have two statements that can be easily verified.

  • People write about magic a lot.
  • Progress with technology like industrial revolutions benefit economical growth.

Now, take only these two sentences and speculate why they make sense together by answering these questions:

  • Was magic ever real before?
  • Is technology replaced magic because humanity lost knowledge about it?

We can speculate that the connection between the two statements lies in the exploration of human potential. Both magic and technology can be seen as ways through which humans seek to expand their capabilities and understand the world around them. While magic may be more rooted in mythology, folklore, or spiritual beliefs, technology represents the tangible and practical application of knowledge to achieve certain goals.

— ChatGPT

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