Contemplatio , from which “contemplation” derives, originally meant to be with ( con- ) the templum , the sacred space. To contemplate something difficult is not to pass over it quickly, but to dwell in its presence, to let it work on you.

“University” comes from universitas in the Latin phrase universitas magistrorum et scholarium —a community of teachers and scholars—suggesting that a university is a whole, a totality where minds were formed through exposure to the vast and contradictory totality of thought.

AI can make it easier to pass tests but it doesn’t do anything about the actual, magical transformation of learning. The AI student is forever a tenant, never an owner, of their curiosity.