The fascinating untold story of how the ancients imagined robots
and other forms of artificial life-and even invented real automated
machines The first robot to walk the earth was a bronze giant
called Talos. This wondrous machine was created not by MIT Robotics
Lab, but by Hephaestus, the Greek god of invention. More than 2,500
years ago, long before medieval automata, and centuries before
technology made self-moving devices possible, Greek mythology was
exploring ideas about creating artificial life-and grappling with
still-unresolved ethical concerns about biotechne, "life through
craft." In this compelling, richly illustrated book, Adrienne Mayor
tells the fascinating story of how ancient Greek, Roman, Indian,
and Chinese myths envisioned artificial life, automata, self-moving
devices, and human enhancements-and how these visions relate to and
reflect the ancient invention of real animated machines. As early
as Homer, Greeks were imagining robotic servants, animated statues,
and even ancient versions of Artificial Intelligence, while in
Indian legend, Buddha's precious relics were defended by robot
warriors copied from Greco-Roman designs for real automata. Mythic
automata appear in tales about Jason and the Argonauts, Medea,
Daedalus, Prometheus, and Pandora, and many of these machines are
described as being built with the same materials and methods that
human artisans used to make tools and statues. And, indeed, many
sophisticated animated devices were actually built in antiquity,
reaching a climax with the creation of a host of automata in the
ancient city of learning, Alexandria, the original Silicon Valley.
A groundbreaking account of the earliest expressions of the
timeless impulse to create artificial life, Gods and Robots reveals
how some of today's most advanced innovations in robotics and AI
were foreshadowed in ancient myth-and how science has always been
driven by imagination. This is mythology for the age of AI.
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