The Atomic Human

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Writing in Ancient Mesopotamia

Period: 1500-1000 BCE

Historical Context

By 1500-1000 BCE, writing had evolved from early accounting tokens into a sophisticated cuneiform system that enabled complex record-keeping and literature in ancient Mesopotamia. Cities like Ur maintained scribal schools (é-dubba) that trained specialists in clay tablet writing. The period saw writing used for diverse purposes: administrative records, legal codes, religious texts, and literature like the Epic of Gilgamesh. The trial of Siyatu, documented in a clay tablet from Ur (c. 1250-1200 BCE), provides insight into how writing enabled new forms of social organization and decision-making. The tablet records testimony in a theft case, showing how written records had become integral to justice systems.

Relationship to The Atomic Human

The use of writing in this period illustrates several key themes from the book:

Evolution of Information Technology

Chapter 11 uses the emergence of writing in early cities as an example of how new information technologies co-evolve with social complexity. Like modern programming languages, cuneiform writing required specialized training and created a new class of information workers.

Trust and Decision-Making

The Siyatu trial, discussed in Chapter 11, demonstrates early use of written records for consequential decisions. This connects to broader themes about trust and accountability in automated decision-making systems.

Cultural Context and Persistence

The Epic of Gilgamesh, referenced in Chapter 4, shows how writing enabled cultural information to persist and evolve across generations. This relates to discussions about how cultural artifacts create “information coherence” across time.

Interface and Specialization

The scribal system exemplifies themes from Chapter 12 about the importance of appropriate interfaces between human capabilities and information technology. Like modern programmers, scribes served as specialized intermediaries between human needs and technological capabilities.

Power and Knowledge

The concentration of writing ability among scribes and temple administrators, touched on in Chapter 11, prefigures later discussions about digital oligarchy and control of information systems.

This period of Mesopotamian writing provides historical perspective on how information technologies shape social organization while raising enduring questions about power, trust, and human agency that remain relevant to current technological changes.