“Forget everything you think you know about the ancient Minoan culture,” the historian said to me at the palace gates. The story she told me on that hot, dusty day in July has since been pressing on me, like a constant drumbeat -- a reminder of why our work in Responsible AI is so unrestricted in importance by just the demands of the here and now. Let us take you on a journey so that you can understand the very direct correlation between what archaeology can teach us about our high tech field.

Knossos

An estimated 10,000 years ago a set of Neolithic people inhabited a hill on the large island of Crete. These industrious people learned over the millennia that there was one local rather dangerous animal that could really turn the tides for their people if they could only figure out how to tame it and domesticate it. Young men were trained to go out into the hills, find a wild bull, capture it, tame it and then bring it back to the village so that it may pull plows. Without the ability to pull plows and harvest fields, the fragile society could not grow in strength and number. 

An entire civilization grew around this concept. This training was considered akin to becoming enlightened because it took not only physical strength to trap and tame a wild bull, but significant intelligence. Those youths that completed their training and became enlightened through this arduous ordeal had their own special road into what became a giant palace that at its height served 100,000 people. These same enlightened youth were depicted in frescoes as having lighter skin than their novice comrades. Youths from all over the ancient world were invited to come to this special training that was overseen by “the Minos.”

Depictions of Women in the Frescoes and ‘the Minos’

According to our historian, the Minos was not a king. There was no historical archaeological evidence that there ever was a king of the Minoan empire. There also was likely no queen. Today it is theorized that ‘the Minos’ was a name that was used in rotation likely most often for priestesses. We know this, our historian told us, because you will never ever see in a Minoan fresco someone looking larger than someone else. In most all of the Knossos frescoes, people are facing in profile, all of the same height and typically either painted in the light-skinned fashion or the dark-skinned fashion. In fact the only time that you see a person facing you in a fresco, is if it is a woman. You will also never ever see a child depicted in a Minoan fresco. The historian explained to us that at that time, it is believed that babies were raised by a variety of different women and that the society was indeed matrilineal based on kinship with the mother or the female line (not matriarchal). Read more about the depictions of women in ancient frescoes here.

2000 BC technology

Whilst the rest of Europe was living largely in caves and mud huts, this palace boasted multiple story floors, an underground sewer system, an aqueduct and baths. It had beautiful paintings and mosaics that depicted not scenes of war and material wealth, but stunning serene scenes of nature. In fact the investments made by this society as evidenced by their remaining art were mainly on civic engineering and artistry, not on weaponry or domination. It is indeed theorized that this may have been the very reason for the civilization’s demise due to neighboring civilizations learning about iron in advance of the Minoans.

Seeds of the first democratic ideals

These Minos priestesses, when they invited lads from all over the known world, did not just invite the wealthy, they invited everyone. Everyone was invited on this journey towards enlightenment. Wealthy lads fought against those that grew up without, something that was quite novel at that time. Upon Theseus’ visit seeing such sights, he took these seeds back to the mainland and it is theorized that is what helped to seed the initial ideals of democracy.

Sir Arthur Evans

Archaeologist Sir Arthur Evans was born in Hertfordshire, England in 1851 in the very heart of the Victorian era. During the Victorian era, even though there was a British matriarch, women did not have the right to vote, sue, or – if they were married – own property. This point of view we believe deeply affected Sir Arthur Evans when he uncovered the art of Knossos. His background (or perhaps other pressures) compelled him to detail that a throne room must have had a king along with a queen. Other biases also influenced his thinking when interpreting the unique art of the site. The half nude people carrying offerings must have been slaves (even though they wore jewelry). He opined that the people depicted with white skin must have been women (even though only a subset had breasts).

The Introduced bias of the archaeologist and how it affected our perception of history

By introducing his biased interpretation of history using his own Victorian era lenses, we may have missed a critical learning moment in understanding human history. Is it possible that we missed recognizing that the first seeds of democracy were planted thousands of years earlier than we had thought -- nurtured by a peaceful matrilineal society? In 75,000 years of human history, we’ve always understood conflict and resolution through storytelling. Data represents human behavior, and understanding that puzzle and being able to tell that story is something we need to do more of.

What we can learn in the realm of AI

What we’re doing with AI and cognitive today is being able to bind philosophy and psychology and look at it from a computer science perspective. We need to understand how data fits together and wisdom is created. That takes a lot of effort from a lot of people, and it involves storytelling, much like what archaeologists do.

Unearthing that wisdom and fully leveraging AI’s potential requires input from a team with a wide range of backgrounds and experiences. To ensure the development of solutions that speak to every audience, it is critical for organizations to foster a diverse organization that works together to tell a full data story.

In Conclusion

Social scientists have been taught to be explicit about their own subjectivity. What we know to be true is what we want to be true. This thought experiment runs through my head on a daily basis to make sure I do my best -- and I work hard to do my best -- to understand the data from the perspective of the user. This is an essential skill that we have codified into what is called the Scaled DS method, made from CRISP-DM which was the methodology for SPSS - statistical processing for the social scientist. We have an urgent need to bring together “soft” and “hard” sciences, qualitative and quantitative. We now know we don’t need to be binary, we need to be aware. Human perception is biased, data is biased and the only way to make good decisions is to acknowledge and be aware of stories like Knossos that teach us to understand ourselves before we try to understand others. This is the ethics of social science. This is what we have done in our Scaled DS methodology. We have reinvented a way to make sure our scientists have the rigor, testing and oversight needed to be explicit about our own subjectivity. This is what it means to be an ethical data scientist. 

About the Authors

Phaedra Boinodiris

A fellow with the London-based Royal Society of Arts, Boinodiris has focused on inclusion in technology since 1999. She is currently the business transformation leader for IBM’s Trustworthy AI consulting group and serves on the leadership team of IBM’s Academy of Technology. Boinodiris, co-founder of WomenGamers.com, is pursuing her Ph.D. in AI and Ethics at University College Dublin’s Smart Lab. In 2019, she won the United Nations Woman of Influence in STEM and Inclusivity Award and was recognized by Women in Games International as one of the Top 100 Women in the Games Industry.

Beth Rudden

As a former archaeologist, IBM’s Distinguished Engineer Beth Rudden is leveraging her experience in sociological progress to transform industry standards by prioritizing inclusive data narrative processes in AI through IBM Global Business Services.

Ioanna Glypti

Ioanna Glypti is a historian and licensed guide for Cretan Tours that specializes in ancient Greek and Roman history. When she is not introducing visitors to ancient greek sites like Knossos, she acts as a formal interpreter for the Greek government and teaches at the University of Crete.