Mayor, Adrienne (Author)
Princeton University Press
Physical Details: 304 pp.
Language: English
The fascinating untold story of how the ancients imagined robots and other forms of artificial life―and even invented real automated machinesThe 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.
...MoreReview Teun Koetsier (2019) Review of "Gods and Robots: Myths, Machines, and Ancient Dreams of Technology". Isis: International Review Devoted to the History of Science and Its Cultural Influences (pp. 810-811).
Review Henderson, Georgina J. (October 2019) Review of "Gods and Robots: Myths, Machines, and Ancient Dreams of Technology". Technology and Culture (pp. 1100-1101).
Similar Citations
Thesis
Ambrosetti, Nadia;
(2011)
Cultural Roots of Technology: An Interdisciplinary Study of Automated System from the Antiquity to the Renaissance
(/isis/citation/CBB001567305/)
Chapter
Berryman, Sylvia;
(2007)
The Imitation of Life in Ancient Greek Philosophy
(/isis/citation/CBB000774722/)
Book
LaGrandeur, Kevin;
(2013)
Androids and Intelligent Networks in Early Modern Literature and Culture: Artificial Slaves
(/isis/citation/CBB001201685/)
Chapter
Kang, Minsoo;
(2012)
From the Man-Machine to the Automaton-Man: The Enlightenment Origins of the Mechanistic Imagery of Humanity
(/isis/citation/CBB001200744/)
Article
Castañeda, Claudia;
Suchman, Lucy;
(2014)
Robot Visions
(/isis/citation/CBB001421174/)
Book
Alexander Jones;
Liba Taub;
(2018)
The Cambridge History of Science: Volume 1, Ancient Science
(/isis/citation/CBB838287077/)
Article
Sarma, Nataraja;
(2000)
Diffusion of astronomy in the ancient world
(/isis/citation/CBB000111303/)
Book
David Brown;
Jonathan Ben-Dov;
(2018)
The Interactions of Ancient Astral Science
(/isis/citation/CBB920028822/)
Book
Shail, Andrew;
Howie, Gillian;
(2005)
Menstruation: A Cultural History
(/isis/citation/CBB000930580/)
Article
Qu, Anjing;
Tang, Quan;
(2008)
Research on the Parallax Theory in Ancient Greece, India, Arabia and China
(/isis/citation/CBB000933519/)
Book
Marie-Hélène Marganne;
Antonio Ricciardetto;
(2017)
En marge du Serment hippocratique. Contrats et serments dans le monde gréco-romain.
(/isis/citation/CBB468049054/)
Book
Liba Taub;
(2020)
The Cambridge Companion to Ancient Greek and Roman Science
(/isis/citation/CBB804529002/)
Article
Alan Dorin;
Eva Anagnostou-Laoutides;
(2018)
The Silver Triton: Suetonius Claud. 21.6.13–16
(/isis/citation/CBB156550742/)
Book
Domenico Laurenza;
Elisabetta Poddighe;
(2020)
Medusa nel Systema Naturae di Linneo: Aspetti della fortuna del mito greco
(/isis/citation/CBB386205404/)
Book
Mayor, Adrienne;
(2011)
The First Fossil Hunters: Dinosaurs, Mammoths, and Myth in Greek and Roman Times
(/isis/citation/CBB001550088/)
Book
Wilk, Stephen R.;
(2000)
Medusa: Solving the Mystery of the Gorgon
(/isis/citation/CBB000111290/)
Article
Martín Hernández, Raquel;
(2006)
Orfeo cientifico
(/isis/citation/CBB001023871/)
Book
Amigues, Suzanne;
(2002)
Études de botanique antique
(/isis/citation/CBB000771380/)
Article
Heyking, John von;
(2013)
Hermes as Eros in Plato's Lysis
(/isis/citation/CBB001213733/)
Article
Solounias, Nikos;
Mayor, Adrienne;
(2004)
Ancient References to the Fossils from the Land of Pythagoras
(/isis/citation/CBB000502325/)
Be the first to comment!