The philosophers in the technological age. The new pythagoreans

Greek philosophers built great discussions about reality, which are still current in our times and still inspire today’s great thinkers. From mathematical teachings by Pythagoras, encompassing Plato’s and Aristotle’s ideas, these great discussions have been essential for our present intelectual development. Today, however, this role has been adopted by a new class of visionaries. Brought together by this new Platonic Academy based in Stanford University; devoted to proving and making use of the supremacy of numbers and mathematics in the digital world; intent on finding the new Holy Grail embodied in the perfect algorithm, present time’s entrepreneurs of new technologies have radically transformed, for good or otherwise, the world as we know it.

Ulrich Richter Morales delves deep into the legacy – sometimes clear, sometimes mystical and esoteric – of the Pythagoreans in their diverse historical incarnations. He particularly emphasizes their dominant role in these digital times, while he introduces a debate regarding the sort of machines we ought to develop. Elon Musk, Steve Jobs, Bill Gates, Jeff Bezos, Larry Page and Sergey Brin, among others, are declared heirs of the Mathematician from Samos and, always engrossed in polemic discussions, they are inseparable from our concept of how the world works. Getting to know them as persons and as thinkers is a way to better understand modern day life and our role as citizens, in the unstable, volatile grounds we tread on today.