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    Gods and Robots: Myths, Machines, and Ancient Dreams of Technology
    Unavailable
    Gods and Robots: Myths, Machines, and Ancient Dreams of Technology
    Unavailable
    Gods and Robots: Myths, Machines, and Ancient Dreams of Technology
    Audiobook9 hours

    Gods and Robots: Myths, Machines, and Ancient Dreams of Technology

    Published by Princeton University Press Audio

    4/5

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    Currently unavailable

    About this audiobook

    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.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherPrinceton University Press Audio
    Release dateNov 27, 2018
    ISBN9780691193427
    Unavailable
    Gods and Robots: Myths, Machines, and Ancient Dreams of Technology

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    Reviews for Gods and Robots

    4/5

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    • 2/5
      The premise looked interesting, but I'm just not all that interested in the details of Greco-Roman mythology, and the connections Mayor was making between ancient myths and modern stories of robots seemed pretty tenuous. I didn't get very far before I gave up.
    • 5/5
      Mayor assembles a fascinating picture of artificial life being born in mythology and emerging into the real world during ancient times. This is a scholarly work, not a work of popular science. For me, that was perfect, as I used it for background research for my latest sci-fi novel, Turing’s Nightmares. There is repetition though, as Mayor takes ancient myths, stories, dramas, and fragments of manuscripts, jewelry, painted pottery, complete or in shards, and pieces them together in various patterns to reveal humanity’s interest in what we now think of as artificial intelligence and robotics. From Talos to Pandora, from Daedalus to Hephaestus, to ancient extravaganzas reminiscent of some Rose Bowl Parade, to Ajatasatru and Asoka’s robot guardians of Buddha’s remains, you can enjoy rediscovering some amazing ideas if you read this book.
    • 5/5
      Adrienne Mayor traces the appearance of biotechne or automata in the stories, poetry, plays, pottery and statues of the Ancient World, particularly in Ancient Greece, but also with reference to Rome, India and China. From the bronze automaton Talos, protecting Crete by running its borders 3 times a day, throwing boulders at unknown shipping, to Pandora, the artificial woman with her jar of woes that was Zeus' vengeance on the world for the theft of fire, from the inventions of the immortal Hephaestus to the very mortal Daedalus, this is a fascinating history of how the ancients imagined and embraced the idea of automation, how they created statues with moving parts and developed their engineering ingenuity to create the illusion of artificial lifeThe ancients were in doubt as to what artificial beings could be used for; labour saving, sexual substitutes and warfare. Mayor cites numerous examples of the sexual allure of graceful statues, some of whom were assaulted by night. And Mayor also reveals that the Ancients would have had little truck with Asimov's First Law - that a robot may not injure a human; The automata of the Ancient World were often created with vengeance, torture and punishment in mindIts a fascinating book, and one that reminds us that concerns about the ethics and control of artificial beings is hardly a new concern; the Ancients were struggling with this three millenia ago
    • 4/5
      This is an intriguing synthesis of the legends of "biotechne" of ancient and classical and Hellenistic Greece, as despite not having the technology to actualize their most expansive concepts this did not prevent the Greeks from imagining what artificial life might look like and what the philosophical issues might be. Besides that though, Mayor notes that it should give one pause that a disproportionate number of these creations (Talos, Pandora, the Minotaur, etc.) came into being because of the tyrannical drive for power by inhumane overlords. Mayor wraps up her study with an examination of what actual Hellenistic technology looked like and some contemplation of our future.