Synthetic Histories

Like the products of AI themselves, history can be considered a synthetic construct—an interpretation shaped by human choices, omissions, and biases. Our understandings of the past are tied to the trust we have in archivists, storytellers, historians, and human memory itself - none of which can claim infallibility. Canonical history often goes unchallenged, and when left unchecked, the strength of accepted narratives only grows as time moves on.

Much of the value of history is found in its capacity to facilitate collective understanding of what has been, which in turn is instrumental in holding our social fabrics together. When broad agreement is challenged, and when aspects of our pasts are called into question, social ground becomes shaky, competing belief systems arise, and we divide. The matter of truth is not only fickle, but often at risk of collapsing into a battleground that contests how the stories of humanity should be defined, and how the future should thus be charted.

In this new period, the DAO has chosen to place Botto in the role of synthesizer of history. And we consider this role in the broader position that AI is now occupying as a cataloger, preserver, and dictator of the stories of human history.