Thread

Using LLMs to trace alchemical knowledge and decode 17th century letters

174 points · 44 comments · benbreen

loufe · 1790284798 · focus · HN ↗
I've been using AI to help with my genealogical research, and it's been fantastic. I am loving pushing the family history back and catching mistakes that someone who many others share as a common ancestor have made.
1. thomasfromcdnjs · 1790320261 · focus · HN ↗
  Amen.
  I've been doing family history on my aboriginal Australian side, there were a bunch of Lutheran missions, and ever so kindly they digitized 800 pages for me, but it was all written in German. I transcribed and translated all of it.
  <a href="https://drive.google.com/file/d/1en9gDgZRP7EmSHU72k6g2Iz3RRfPFDW4/view" rel="nofollow">https://drive.google.com/file/d/1en9gDgZRP7EmSHU72k6g2Iz3RRf...
  I sent it back and they didn't acknowledge it, probably for various reasons, and I doubt they would like me linking it above.
  Beyond being fascinating in general, I also found that from a different state in Australia there was an aboriginal who became a man of letters came to my ancestral state and was the first to write the language of the tribe, I think (not something easy to prove) it's the first ever written version of the tribal language circa ~1870 of Kuku Yalanji.
  1. 52-6F-62 · 1790345936 · focus · HN ↗
    > I sent it back and they didn't acknowledge it, probably for various reasons, and I doubt they would like me linking it above.
    Because if you study this stuff long enough, you'll find the LLMs hallucinate in this space far more than they do in a discourse or programming project.
    It can be close enough to seem useful, but make critical errors that can cause rippling problems.
    I've done a lot of the same sort of thing with Latin and chancery and while it can really help in understanding it on a personal level, it takes combing over what it has said and zooming in, comparing it with other information, and understanding the historical context. Otherwise it can completely mangle clauses, contexts, etc.
    It is remarkable how well they can start to read things like chancery script, but again, many errors. Not reliable, especially in such large volumes. It would require extensive review. And they are probably getting flooded wth things like that now. And not all of them will be benevolent. History is laden with intentional corruptions and the flat, context-less reading that LLMs give can bury that even further.
    Don't inundate researchers, churches, and records offices wth this stuff. But it is absolutely a space where it can help, with proper organization and engagement.
    t-writescode · 1790352728 · focus · HN ↗
    Or, more simply, affairs, unwed couples, incidences of rape that were a dark stain in the victim’s life, etc.
    A friend of mine loves to think about heritage and genealogy and when I brought up genetic testing and “wouldn’t it be neat to find out if someone in your lineage wasn’t actually in it?” they were quick to point out that they’re not interested in that because it doesn’t matter and her parents are her parents (and her great great grandparents are her great great grandparents).
    Discovering infidelity and/or abuse in your family tree 2-3 generations back often (but never ever always) does little but harm to one’s own genealogical journey.
    1659447091 · 1790387402 · focus · HN ↗
    > “wouldn’t it be neat to find out if someone in your lineage wasn’t actually in it?”
    There was a whole to-do with Richard III and finding a "non/false-paternity event" occurred. The genealogy tracing in that case though is impressive.
    <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-30281333" rel="nofollow">https://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-30281333
    <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Non-paternity_event" rel="nofollow">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Non-paternity_event

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