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Chapter ID: CBB193168448

The Android of Albertus Magnus: A Legend of Artificial Being (2020)

Ben Halliburton (Author)
Kang, Minsoo (Author)

Oxford University Press
Pages: 72-94
Publication date: 2020
Language: English

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1093/oso/9780198846666.003.0004

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Androids Magic Automata; robotics; cyborgs Divination; prognostication Artificial intelligence Medieval Tostado, Alonso Naudé, Gabriel Albertus Magnus

In medieval and early modern writings, there is a cluster of stories concerning an artificial construct in the shape of a human body or a head that is animated for the purpose of divination, associated with such figures as Gerbert of Aurillac, Robert Grosseteste, Albertus Magnus, and Roger Bacon. Among them, the Albertus legends have been retold numerous times in interesting variations that provide insight into the changing attitudes towards intellectual magic. Given the fact that the wondrous object is described as being able to converse and even reason, its nature as a kind of medieval AI has made it an object of interest in recent books on AI, robotics, and posthumanity. In this article, the major appearances of Albertus’s speaking statue/head story will be examined in detail to show that the explanation for the wonder moved from astrology to demonic agency, as well as to pure mechanics.

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Book Stephen Cave; Kanta Dihal; Sarah Dillon (2020) AI Narratives: A History of Imaginative Thinking about Intelligent Machines. unapi

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