By ChatGPT from the original by Ralph Losey (who has a grandchild in second grade) with all images by Dall-E 2.
Introduction
Plato and Socrates were two important people who lived a long, long time ago. Plato was a writer who wrote about many important ideas. Socrates was a teacher who taught people how to think and solve problems.
Plato was one of Socrates’ students and he liked Socrates’ teaching so much that he wrote about it. Socrates was famous for asking a lot of questions and helping people find their own answers. He wanted people to think for themselves and understand things deeply. Plato and Socrates are still remembered today because they had important ideas about how we should live our lives and think about the world. They believed that learning and thinking carefully was very important.
Plato wrote a special story about people living in a cave. It’s a famous story that people still talk about today. The story helps us understand the world and how we relate to others.
Problem of Many Lawyers
The problem for lawyers is that technology changes a lot and they have trouble finding important information. This is causing trouble for the whole legal system. Many lawyers only look for the important information in papers. That is a mistake because the papers are just printouts of original information. They are like shadows. They are not the real information from the whole world.
Teachers and trainers can help lawyers learn about finding information on computers by using a fun way of teaching. This way, they will learn how to do it really well and have a good understanding of the subject. By doing this, they will be able to solve any problems they might have with finding information on computers and not have big problems in their job later on. Teachers should try to make learning fun and exciting by doing activities and games, instead of just talking or showing pictures on a screen.
By understanding the Cave story and learning about electronic information, lawyers can become better at their jobs. They will be able to handle the problems with technology and make sure they are doing the right thing. This will make the legal system run better for everyone.
Plato’s Allegory of the Cave
Plato wrote a story a long time ago called “The Cave.” It’s about some people who live in a cave and can only see shadows on the wall from people walking by outside. They think the shadows are the real people, but they are just shadows. This story is about how sometimes we only see things in a certain way and we don’t really know the truth. Like when you see a shadow puppet on the wall, it’s not the real thing.
One day a man in the cave, who had only seen shadows on the wall, his whole life, was freed from the cave. He was taken outside the cave into the bright light. He could finally see the real world and everything that was really there. He went back to the cave to tell his friends, but they didn’t believe him and thought he was crazy. They only knew the shadows and didn’t understand what he was talking about. The man tried to show them, but they wouldn’t listen and even got mad at him.
Plato’s cave story is about helping someone see things in a better way. It’s like when your eyes are closed, and you can’t see anything. But if someone helps you open your eyes and turn them in the right direction, then you can see things clearly. That’s what the cave story is about, helping people see things the right way.
Here is a poem to explain Plato’s story in a slightly different way.
Once upon a time there was a man in a cave
Who had only seen shadows on the wall, his whole life
He was taken outside and shown the light
And saw the real world, and all its strife
He wanted to go back and tell his friends
But they wouldn’t believe, and thought him mad
He tried to show them, but they wouldn’t listen
And even got mad and made him sad
Plato’s cave story is all about seeing
Helping someone find what’s really there
It’s like when your eyes are closed
And you can’t see, but someone helps you to stare
So if you’re ever feeling lost and confused
And you don’t know which way to turn
Take a moment, and look up to the sky
And the truth that you seek, you will learn
Paper Lawyers
Many lawyers are like people who grew up before computers were invented. They love paper because they grew up with it and have always known it. They learned to read and study from paper books, went to law school where they learned about legal papers, and their professors also taught them with paper books and charts. They are used to seeing lots of paper in their work and even when they learn about evidence in court, they use paper documents.
After school, older lawyers give new lawyers an endless supply of extra long paper, called legal pads, and do their best to keep them up to their neck in paper work. They are shown how to generate papers, copy papers, pile papers, file papers, notarize papers, shuffle papers, staple papers, clip papers, highlight papers, redact papers, watermark papers, and even add paper stickums to paper. They also learn how to keep paper calendars, speed-read large files full of papers, spot check papers, and carefully proof-read papers till they are perfect.
Some lawyers cover all the furniture in their office with lots of papers. They even make a path with stacks of paper so they have to climb over them to get to their desk, which is also covered in papers. Papers make lawyers feel happy and important. They show everyone how hard they work. They even put some special papers on their walls. Some lawyers learn how to send papers far away quickly using a special machine called a fax. They also learn how to send letters to each other using the computer and print out important ones to keep in their office.
Most judges and the court like papers too. Lawyers have to give papers to the people they are working with and the people they are against, give papers to the court, and make special papers to show in court. When they ask someone questions, they have to mark papers and give them to the helper, the other lawyer, the judge, and then the person they are asking. Some lawyers even make their favorite papers very big so everyone can see them easily.
Trial lawyers are really good with papers. They learn how to follow the papers, find lots of papers in other people’s special drawers, make copies of the papers, stamp the papers to make them official, show the papers, and then tell the judge and the people listening what the papers mean. Some even learn special ways to mark the papers so they can see the order of them.
Lawyers spend a lot of time with paper. They start the day by reading a special paper called a newspaper. When they’re not working, they read fun paper books and magazines. They work with paper and even have fun with paper at home. Lawyers are really good at understanding what papers mean. They are the best at reading and filling out special papers called forms. They can read very long and complicated papers and understand them. Lawyers look at papers a lot.
Just like the people in Plato’s story, lawyers don’t know that their favorite papers are just like shadows, copies of something that exists on a computer.
