Oracle
по русски
ORACLE [Latin oraculum]
Once it meant the voice of the gods, a source of predictions, a prophetic power.
In the ancient world, an oracle was the place where one could receive an answer from above—in Delphi, Dodona, or the Cumaean cave. The word itself came from orare, “to speak.” The oracle did not speak on its own behalf but conveyed the will of higher powers.
Over time, its meaning changed. In the Middle Ages, “oracles” referred to sages and philosophers whose words were taken as truth. In the modern era, the term became a metaphor—used to describe people with intuition and insight.
Today, oracles have gained a digital dimension. In blockchain, they are mechanisms that connect smart contracts to real-world data.
In AI systems, they are models that predict events, trends, and solutions. If in the past oracles consulted the divine, they now draw on statistics and algorithms.
WHAT’S NEXT?
In the coming decade, the concept of the oracle will change once more.
- Cognitive AIs will become a new kind of oracle: not just providing information, but forming hypotheses and suggesting ways forward.
- Human-machine syntheses will turn an individual thinker into a collective mind, and the “oracle” will no longer be a single person but a network.
- Quantum computing will elevate prediction to a level akin to ancient prophecy—foreknowledge of the future will no longer be a myth, but a tool.
As a result, the oracle will regain a sacred sense—no longer as the will of the gods, but as a supra-systemic voice of probabilities, uniting past, present, and future into one continuous stream of events.
TOKEN [English token]
Once it meant a “sign,” “symbol,” or “chip”—confirmation of a right, status, or access.
In ancient Rome, tokens (tesserae) were used as entry chips to spectacles, for food rations, for voting, and for secret identification signals.
In the Middle Ages, tokens were used by guilds as signs of membership, proof of payment, or internal currency. They were issued to masters and apprentices for access to resources, payment for work, or exchange for goods within the guild. They often featured craft symbols, coats of arms, or guild names.
Today, its meaning has shifted into the digital realm: tokens are what we call the units of large language model output [LLMs], as well as assets in blockchain and cryptocurrency.
The link to the physical world has vanished, but the essence remains:
A token is a key for access, a confirmation of value, a gateway to a particular reality—be it an ancient Roman circus, a medieval guild, a slot machine, or a share in a smart-contract asset.
Is the evolution of the word “TOKEN” now complete, or will there be another unexpected twist? What do you think?