ARTIFICIAl InTEllIGEnCE In THE ClASSICAl woRlD

the shores, hurling boulders and repelling invaders A mysterious, divine lifeblood the Greeks called ichor ran through a single vein in his brazen body and this the sorceress Medea, arriving with the Argonauts, drained by removing a plug from his heel and killed him

Theology

When I was training to be a teacher, I briefly thought about writing a memoir of my first steps in the profession I was going to call it something like 195 First Nights because it felt like every day I was having to write and perform in a new play Not just a traditional play either, a piece of immersive theatre, like those performed by Punch

Thousands of years before The Terminator, Tesla and ChatGPT, before we looked suspiciously over a boy’s work questioning whether it was his or something generated by AI, there was a rich tradition of mythology and philosophical thought that touched on artificial life and self-operating machines, something that we have been discussing this term in our classes.

In classical mythology, stories often featured references to artificial beings endowed with the ability to move and act independently The most famous of these was Talos, the giant bronze automaton from Greek mythology created by Hephaestus, the Greek god of metalworking and craftsmanship, to protect the island of Crete Talos was said to move on his own and perform tasks without human intervention, patrolling

Hesiod describes another example of a mythical artificial being, the story of Pandora, but not the innocent girl many of us think we have heard of, who unwittingly opens a box and releases evil on the world, but an artificial, evil fem-bot built by Hephaestus and the other gods, and sent to Earth by Zeus to punish mortals for discovering fire.

Artificial intelligence, as we understand it today, did not obviously exist in the classical world, as the technological capabilities that underpin it were absent, but the stories from the ancient world perhaps reflect not only an advanced ancient desire to create self-operating machinery capable of thinking for themselves, but also an awareness of the potential dangers in embracing the ‘gifts’ of AI before understanding how to control them

Stephen Heath Head of Classics

Drunk where audience members are able to interact with the cast One of my former colleagues went one stage further and used to write a script for his classes, which he then memorised (but which of course became useless as soon as the class started and the audience went off script)

I’ve been thinking about this recently as we ’ ve been adopting some more theatrical techniques in the Theology Department My personal favourite has been the courtroom drama lesson This is where you take a philosopher, such as Thomas Aquinas or Immanuel Kant and put them on trial Students play the roles of prosecutors and defence barristers, as well as the judge and jury Others play witnesses for the prosecution or the defence and it’s been great seeing how much fun the boys have with it Some of it is very funny (hearing Immanuel Kant trying desperately to remember what he’d written about how to formulate the Categorical Imperative) and at other times it’s very insightful, particularly when the judge is summing up It’s a format in which everyone is involved and engaged throughout the lesson

And the best thing is that it’s a play that the audience write and perform themselves

James Crawford Head of Theology

Computer Science

The Upper Sixth submitted their A level projects for moderation and there was a great array of different projects submitted after a long 12 months almost in production we had projects on Symbolic Differentiation, a database of statistics for the national Basketball Association, a social media app for discussing homework, a maze-solving and a towerdefence game and a 3D-Terrain mapping program. All of these were gargantuan pieces of work but two stood out – Kohki Hatori (U6e) and ogi Soldatovic (U6a) on an edge-detection algorithm using Fourier Series and Bezier Curves and a phonebased Mapping program, respectively They are to be hard-bound and a copy will be kept in the School library

Congratulations to them.

Sixth For m

The Upper Sixth boys have worked and revised hard throughout this term, with a steely focus on attaining success in A level exams and the completion of the BTEC courses before they head off on exciting new adventures Many of our boys will be taking gap years and spending that time working, travelling and preparing applications for university Others will go on to study at university in the UK There is an exciting diverse range of destinations in the mix Some boys are heading to Russell Group universities such as Oxford, Durham, Newcastle, Cardiff, Bristol; others are pursuing highly sought-after places at Edinburgh and Bath (The T imes and Sunday T imes University of the Year 2023) Many of our boys have thought long and hard about the landscape of where they wish to live and study and have chosen coastal locations such as Falmouth and Swansea so that, when not studying, they can surf and sail in the sunset Five of our boys are successfully applied to study at prestigious overseas destinations, and so from September we will have Old Shirburnians based at Stanford, Boston, Berklee and Toronto

The Lower Sixth boys have begun their preparations for their own post 18 destinations The trial exams after half-term have given boys and parents a good indication of where things stand academically, with regards to the gap between current grades and the grades required in order to access preferred destinations In addition, following pupil and parent talks from the University of Bath, the boys have registered for UCAS and have begun writing their own personal statements To enhance these applications, many pupils have booked places on academic summer schools or arranged work experience at placements aligned to their chosen pathway To gain inspiration, many boys have visited a range of universities and attended a number of open days so that they are able to make clear, well thought-through decisions about their future lives

Dr David Wild Head of Computer

Science

This year we have re-started the Ed Moorhouse Travel Fund Ed (f 90) was an Old Shirburnian who won the Morehead Cain Scholarship to study at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill Ed sadly passed away too young, yet a fund was raised in his honour to support current Shirburnians interested in studying in the USA Robert Chitty (L6d) is this year ’ s winner and will be using the award to help support a week attending a fantastic Los Angeles Soccer Camp, attended by representatives from 50 US colleges Boys wishing to study overseas have also been supported by a SAT Guidance webinar and also a webinar on studying at various global university destinations

Whilst the sun has shone hard on Sherborne, there have been many moments for relaxation and socialising in our beautiful grounds and House gardens The boys have enjoyed many social interactions with their counterparts at Sherborne Girls and the frequent, timeless sound of bat or racquet on ball has made this a very ‘outdoorsy’, hot and happy Trinity Term

Alex Boyd-Williams Deputy Head (Sixth Form)