Adrift in the Algorithm: What Géricault's Raft Reveals About Our Age of AI

In 1816, the French frigate Méduse ran aground off the coast of Mauritania, a victim of an incompetent captain appointed for political rather than professional reasons. The officer class commandeered the available lifeboats. One hundred and fifty others were set adrift on a hastily constructed raft. After thirteen days of thirst, madness, murder, and cannibalism, fifteen survivors were rescued. The event became an international scandal of the day.