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Gods and Robots
Myths, Machines, and Ancient Dreams of TechnologyBy Adrienne MayorNarrated by Adrienne MayorLength9h 24m
About this audiobook
This audiobook narrated by Adrienne Mayor reveals the story of how the ancients imagined robots and other forms of artificial life
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 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.
Audiobook details
GenreHistory, Psychology
Length9 hrs 24 mins
Narrated byAdrienne Mayor
FormatAudiobook
Publish dateNov 27, 2018
LanguageEnglish
Table of contents
1Opening Anno, Dedication, Introduction: Made not Born
7Chapter 6 - Pygmalion's Living Doll and Prometheus's First Human
2Chapter 1 - The Robot and the Witch: Talos and Medea
8Chapter 7 - Hephaestus: Divine Devices and Automata
3Chapter 2 - Medea's Cauldron of Rejuvenation
9Chapter 8 - Pandora: Beautiful, Artificial, Evil
4Chapter 3 - The Quest for Immortality and Eternal Youth
10Chapter 9 - Between Myth and History: Real Automata and Lifelike Artifices in the Ancient World
5Chapter 4 - Beyond Nature: Enhanced Powers Borrowed from Gods and Animals
11Epilogue: Awe, Dread, Hope: Deep Learning and Ancient Stories
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6Chapter 5 - Daedalus and the Living Statues
12Acknowledgements, Closing Anno
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