Between You and AI

2Prompting

UNDER THE BRIGHT Athenian sun, in the Greek agora of 399 BCE, a restless crowd gathered to watch the city’s most provocative thinker stand trial. The charges were extremely serious: impiety against the Gods (asebeia in Greek) and corruption of the youth of Athens. The thinker standing trial was Socrates—a philosopher whose defiant questioning of truth and virtue would echo through the ages, immortalized by the writings of his disciples Plato and Xenophon.

Socrates had a habit of questioning the norms and structures of Athenian democracy—a practice that made him a dangerous figure to those in power—through his signature philosophical approach: what became known as the Socratic method. Through relentless questioning, he dismantled assumptions, challenged dogmas, and exposed contradictions—often revealing the ignorance of Athens’ most influential figures. In some sense, he was sentenced for “asking too many questions.” He ultimately was condemned to death, and his execution—carried out with a lethal dose of hemlock—was the ultimate price he paid for his relentless pursuit of truth.

Just as Socrates’s questioning challenged the power structures of ancient Athens, it also became a tool—not only for himself, but for anyone seeking to break free from rigid beliefs and challenge the status quo. After all, the true seeds of learning, change, and innovation lie not in having the right answers, but in asking the right questions. The same is even truer today: in an era where ...