For history buffs, the contrast between the methods of Peter the Great and Vladimir Putin is stark. Peter the Great's obsession was the modernization of Russia based on stubbornly learning from Western countries. So he placed his armies in the hands of European generals, attracted thousands of foreign artisans, commissioned a French architect to build St. Petersburg, and forced the Russians to shave off their long beards and wear European garb. Putin's policy, by contrast, has been one of Russian-centric nationalism, anti-Western ideology, and shutting down the flow of ideas. Peter the Great brought the great Russian ship close to European shores and Putin is moving it away at high speed.
The changes promoted by the great tsar generated strong resistance and he implemented them with intelligence and a sense of justice typical of another era. For example, he started wars; he crushed the Streltsy regiments, entrusted with his security; he executed reactionaries and tortured his own son. The tsar's reforms made Russia a colossus and lasted over time. Thus, the Preobrazhensky and Semyonovsky regiments, the elite units he created, played an important role for 200 years; Russian nobles began to speak French among themselves, and Russian ladies stopped blackening their teeth to look more beautiful.
From all this we can surely extract interesting lessons for our present, although we will have to do it avoiding practicing a misleading ecdotics, since there is a lot that we do not know. Surely we can deduce that importing disruptive technologies has great advantages, but that they generate strong resistance, both ideological and material.
Also that modernization requires taking important risks, since they generate radical changes, so the tsar was at a moment's notice from losing everything and Putin's anti-Westernism is related to not wanting to give up power and feeling fragile, which is why he builds such wide walls. At the same time that the alternative to modernization is stagnation, poverty, mistakes and failing to understand how the world works.
These are issues to take into account before the visit that we will receive from the next agent of change: artificial intelligence in the form of its latest exponent, ChatGPT. This application has been created in the United States by a very American ecosystem, it is a truly powerful and amazing phenomenon and it is worth for readers to try it (note: it is free), like who smells the bouquet of wine. ChatGPT writes surprisingly well and can summarize long papers, schedule, prepare contracts, and teach. Dear readers, humanity can change as much as flour, motors or smartphones.
For all this, we welcome this visitor with open doors, lest they end up coming in through the window. The best way to take advantage of artificial intelligence will be by accepting our vulnerabilities, learning lessons from others, overcoming resistance and being willing to change.
If this analysis is true, it means that we have a big but difficult chance to prosper, that the future of today's Russia is as black as the teeth of its former ladies, and that the Italian ban on ChatGPT is a bad omen. British footballer Georges Best said: "I spent my fortune on women, alcohol and cars, the rest I wasted." Let's not be like him and let's not waste our resources before the opportunity that comes.
