AT SOUTHCENTRAL Kentucky Community and Technical College, students learn cybersecurity from an instructor whose life is characterized by adventure and intrigue. A former Army sergeant with 21 years of service, Gilbert has been a tanker, cavalry scout, and an Arabic cryptolinguist. His experiences place him at the intersection of modern technology and ancient wisdom.
One of the most exciting classes he teaches is Cyber Attack and Exploits. “Day one, I set down laptops in front of them that were password protected and said, ‘OK, let’s crack them,’ and they did,” Gilbert said. His hands-on approach to teaching computer information systems stems from years of working as a computer network defense analyst for the Department of Defense. He challenges his students to look beyond what they’ve been given and find answers themselves, which is something he does in his own life and writes about in his latest novel.
Gilbert has had four books published. His newest one, “Not as Above, Not as Below: How We Got the Emerald Tablet Wrong,” seeks to challenge the accepted interpretation of an ancient Arabic text known as the Emerald Tablet: a 15-line poem that has captivated scholars for centuries. Through his military training, Gilbert studied Arabic cryptolinguistics and was vital in interpreting Arabic communications for the government. This knowledge led him to go back to the original text of the tablet, where he discovered discrepancies in the translation. The Emerald Tablet is written in Arabic, but it holds significant Greek philosophy, and this information making its way to Europe may have been a major catalyst of the Renaissance. The discrepancies Gilbert has found could forever change what we know about the Emerald Tablet. Gilbert said that even if he is proved wrong, he looks forward to the conversation and the challenge.
“One of the eye-opening things when you start translating is there is just no one translation or one interpretation,” Gilbert said. His academic research has been recognized as controversial but innovative. He was honored by an order of the Masons who created the Order of the Golden Stone, naming Gilbert as its first recipient for academic excellence.
Despite the complexity of his research, Gilbert remains committed to accessibility, believing it essential to communicate in a way that makes sense to his readers. He takes this approach with his college students as well. This generation of students is already intelligent in computer science but faces interesting challenges.
“A huge amount of my class grew up holding a cell phone, so when they sit in front of a regular PC, they don’t even know where the files go when they download. I get to teach a more industrial side of things,” Gilbert said. “I learn from them, and they learn from me.”
Gilbert’s current ambition is to translate “The Secret of Creation and the Art of Nature,” the larger Arabic manuscript containing the Emerald Tablet. Each page requires hours of careful translation. Gilbert has applied for a National Endowment for the Humanities grant to pursue this dream while continuing to educate the next generation of cyber defenders. GN
