The **allegory of the cave **was presented by the Greek philosopher Plato in his work_ Republic_, originallyto compare “the effect of education and the lack of it on our nature”. Oddly enough, the state-of-the-art field of machine learning, as it turns out, still fits more or less into this mold of more than 2000 years old.

The Allegory of the Cave

The allegory is elucidated from a conversation between Socrates and Glaucon, his disciple.

Simply put, Socrates tells Glaucon to imagine people living in a vast subterranean cave, open to the outside world via only one strenuous and steep tunnel. The people are chained, facing a tall wall, unable to turn their faces or break the chains. Behind the prisoners, there is a great fire burning, thus projecting what happens behind the people as all shapes of shadows onto the wall that the prisoners are facing.

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