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

by Adrienne Mayor

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.

Genres: History, Nonfiction, Science, Technology, Mythology, Ancient History, Classics

407 pages, Kindle Edition

First published November 1, 2018

Reviews

[Jean Menzies · Rating 4 out of 5]

A thoughtful book full of super interesting hypotheses (some stronger than others).

[Carlex · Rating 4 out of 5]

Three and half stars.

Gods and Robots intends to make a comparison between the ancient myths -mostly greek and roman- and our modern science fiction dreams.

As I said, the book is just a comparison, it does not explain a cause effect or an influence between classical myths and contemporary science fiction stories. It is clear that the author is an expert in classical mythology but not in the science fiction genre. However she is well informed and the comparisons are clever. And, above all, the myths and classic legends about “made, not born” creatures, or about automata, enhanced powers, etc., especially in the Greco-Roman antiquity, are so fascinating that by themselves they captivate us as much or more than any good science fiction novel.

A brief example of the content. There is a chapter that deals with the myths about human improved powers, by "pharmaka" or "biotechne" ("life through craft" ) (for example, Daedalus), or the one that deals with mechanical automatons like Talos, the giant warrior protector of Crete in the Minoic era.

You can read this review and a lot more on my blog, please visit it!: http://girotix.blogspot.com/2020/01/g...

[Peter Tillman · Rating 3 out of 5]

I had this out for quite awhile from the library. First few chapters were hit-or-miss, so I set it aside. When it was coming due, I picked it up again and -- it got better! So, had she hooked me at the start, I'd likely have read the whole thing. So, if you try it, skim until you find something compelling, is my advice. There is some good stuff here. Those ancient engineers and craftsman were remarkable. Maybe I'll try again? But so many books....

Rating is for what I read. Something over half? I was skipping around. She writes well, but there's a good deal of repetition. Some of which actually makes sense, as it reinforces some of her points. Good case for skimming.

I know, title sounds like a cheesy fantasy anthology, but...
Here's the WSJ review, likely paywalled: https://www.wsj.com/articles/gods-and...
"You could be forgiven for rolling your eyes at the front cover of Adrienne Mayor’s “Gods and Robots.” It depicts a generic ancient Greek—pointy beard, knee-length tunic—using a hammer to fix an arm onto a dinky robot skeleton. At first sight, this looks very much like a variant on that tired visual trope of ancient marble statues wearing Ray-Bans and suchlike. Just look how relevant the ancient Greeks still are today (yawn).

Remarkably, the Greek and his droid are not in fact the work of an over-keen production designer at Princeton University Press. The cover image faithfully reproduces a mind-bending group of engraved second-century B.C. gemstones from ancient Etruria (in what is now central Italy), which depict a seated Greek craftsman (probably Prometheus, or perhaps the legendary craftsman Daedalus) building a human being from the inside out. On some of the gems, “Prometheus” is shown hammering an arm onto a skeleton; on others, he is building a human body from the top down, starting with the head and torso, fixed on a wooden frame. ..."

[Jacopo Quercia · Rating 5 out of 5]

First and foremost, WOW!

'Gods and Robots: The Ancient Quest for Artificial Life' is a remarkable achievement that will completely transform the way you look at Ancient Greece. Written by Stanford University Prof. Adrienne Mayor, this book is an exhaustive study on how the Greeks approached artificial / augmented life creatively, artistically, and even practically. You will not believe how closely the imagination of the ancients resembles the modern era with respect to artificial life, robotics, and human enhancement. It is a shocking read that will grab you no differently than a sci-fi thriller, albeit it one enormous exception: 'Gods and Robots' is non-fiction.

From its first chapter, Prof. Mayor makes it clear that she is confident in her findings. "For this book I have gathered every text and scrap of ancient poetry, myth, history, art, and philosophy related to artificial life that I have been able to find—and enough compelling evidence emerges to suggest that people of antiquity were fascinated, even obsessed, with tales of artificially creating life and augmenting natural powers." If this sounds shocking, it should. "Some art historians suggest that we have only about 1 percent of the Greek vase paintings ever made," she adds, "and the modicum of literature and art that remains is often randomly preserved." Despite these limitations, you will be shocked—I mean it, shocked—by how convincing Prof. Mayor recreates the imagination of the ancients using literally every scrap and shard of evidence available. The results are astounding: we are essentially living in the world the ancients imagined across millennia, and little has changed in terms of where AI, robotics, and human enhancements appear to be going. With every innovation, we are becoming more and more like the gods.

Some critics took issue with Prof. Mayor's decision to include ancient depictions of immortality and eternal youth in this book. While I'll admit I was surprised to come across these sections, they are wholly relevant to the subject and necessary inclusions. It is impossible for me to imagine Roy Batty in 'Blade Runner' without hearing him tell his maker "I want more life." Similarity, the agelessness of humanoid androids is a hallmark of sci-fi film and literature—'Terminator Genisys' notwithstanding. In short, I reject these criticisms. Mankind's obsession with longevity and youthfulness remain as much a part of artificial life as human life, and I applaud Prof. Mayor's wisdom to include ancient depictions of the same.

In short, buy this book. It is one of the best scholarly texts I've ever read, and I am already looking forward to using it in class. It is a brilliant, breathtaking read, and I recommend it most highly. Five stars.

[Elizabeth Sund · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is much to repetitive to be enjoyable, but the content is interesting. I was glad to learn more about Talos, Media, Deadalus, and Hephaestus. It has the repetition often found in academic texts where each chapter is designed to stand on its own, rather than written as a cohesive book. The "connections" to today were not needed. She references Blade Runner like 30 times! She never mentions Ultron though, which surprised me.

[Súbete a la Nutria · Rating 5 out of 5]

Súper guay.

[Rafa · Rating 4 out of 5]

Llevo mucho tiempo diciendo que los griegos lo inventaron todo y desde entonces nos dedicamos a darle vueltas a lo que ellos ya nos mostraron y para reafirmarme resulta que todos nuestros dilemas éticos, nuestros temores y esperanzas, nuestros sesudos pensamientos sobre robótica e inteligencia artificial ya se los plantearon los griegos clásicos.
Señores, a descubrirse el coco y lamentar que sólo disponemos de un 10% de la creación de estos genios que hace más de 2.000 años ya eran más listos que todos nosotros juntos.
Un gran libro para abrir nuestra mente a campos que empezamos a hollar con nuestros tímidos pasos.

[Benji · Rating 4 out of 5]

'Taken together, the myths, legends, and lore of past cultures about automata, robots, replicants, animated statues, extended human powers, self-moving machines, and other artificial beings, and the authentic technological wonders that followed, constitute a virtual library and museum of ancient wisdom and experiments in thinking, a priceless resource for understanding the fundamental challenges of biotechnology and synthetic life on the brink today. A goal of this book has been to suggest that on deeper levels the ancient myths about artificial life and AI - and the looming practical and moral implications. I hope that rereading those ancient stories might enrich today's discussions of robotics, driverless cars, biotechnology, AI, machine learning, and other innovations.'

'Suspended above the uncanny abyss of replicating life itself, we still swing between hope and terror unleashed by humans' insatiable quest to imitate and improve life.'

[Lindsay · Rating 3 out of 5]

I DNF'd this, but not because it's a bad book. The information is interesting but it reads like an academic paper. The author compares and contrasts a lot of theories and analyses put forth by other experts in the fields of mythology, philosophy, ethics, robitics, AI, and the technology of ancient civilizations. Unfortunately, I don't have a particular interest or good enough base knowledge in any of those topics to actually get much out of this book. I felt like I stumbled into a 301 class instead of a 101. But, if you DO have a fascination for and prior knowledge of any of those fields, you'd probably love it!

[RoaringRatalouille · Rating 4 out of 5]

Really fascinating if you‘re somewhat interested in the history of how humans think about robots and AI. Gives you an abundance of food for thought!

[Erkan Saka · Rating 4 out of 5]

It is impressive to see how ancient imaginations can be connected to STS thinking.

[Daniel · Rating 5 out of 5]

I have long contended that we can trace the origins of fantasy fiction to ancient myth. And now, with this meticulously researched book, I am able to argue that we can also trace the origins of Science Fiction to mythology.

Adrienne Mayor has written a book which provides further evidence of the versatility of myth. And another means to find new meanings in these (very) old stories.

As her book strengthens the case for the study of myth, she also shows how myth has helped scholars, scientists, craftsman, and engineers imagine the future.

[Angela Boord · Rating 4 out of 5]

Really interesting subject matter, but the book seems unsure whether it's written to an academic or general audience, so it can be a little dry at times. The collection and analysis of the myths together with the archaeological discoveries and historical accounts that illuminate them is fantastic.

[Ninja Notion · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book provides some evidence to show that humans have always imagined robots and machines as part of an underlying thread that we have carried with us throughout history. It's a great read in the sense that she goes deep into a narrow slice of the human literary tradition. Mayor tries to show that ancient stories, primarily of the Greek and Roman gods, and their complicated relationship with the human race, were a way for these civilizations to imagine automaton, robots, androids, and human like machines powered in various ways that were not organic.

Read all of it, except the weak epilogue. In it, the author seems to make a connection between these stories and our progress in artificial intelligence and robotics. The problem with the connection she makes is that while AI and robots in the modern world are reality, Pandora, Prometheus, Daedalus, and Hermes are just fictional characters in stories. None of them ever existed. She says very near the end of the epilogue that, "[a]s humans are enhanced by technology and become more like machines, robots are being infused with something like humanity." I don't understand the point of this assertion. We have been augmenting ourselves since the first human wielded the first tool. Of course we will continue to merge with machinery. We have never stopped. I need only point to automobiles to show one most obvious example.

I think she didn't know what she wanted to say to close out the discussion. Perhaps she intended to make a grand moral statement or warn us about something, but that something evaded this reader.

[Noah Goats · Rating 3 out of 5]

Science fiction is a much older genre than we usually assume. In Gods and Robots Adrienne Mayer traces ideas about technology and artificial life ("life through craft") all the way back to the ancient Greeks whose myths include technological marvels ranging from Talos, the powerful moving statue with veins filled with ichor, to Daedalus and his fantastic inventions. This book is, at it's best, fascinating and eye opening. Unfortunately, sometimes, too often, Mayor gets carried away and claims that some fantastic beings and inventions in the ancient myths are technology or "biotechne" when they are clearly just magic. I rolled my eyes through the whole chapter on Medea. She was a witch making magic potions, not some kind of proto scientist making technological breakthroughs. Much of what Daedelus did was scientific and technological, but even with him, Mayor goes too far. The hollow cow that Pasiphae had Daedelus build so she could mate with a bull was a big disgusting sort of sex toy, but it was not artificial life, a robot, or some kind of technological marvel. I wish Mayor had stayed on solid ground.

I listened to the audiobook edition. The narration was fine, but it led me to believe that the print version probably includes a whole lot of images that obviously can't be presented in the audio format. If the print version does include images, I'd go with that rather than the audiobook.

[JC · Rating 4 out of 5]

Definitely a fairly academic book, and not necessarily the most accessible, but endlessly fascinating and highly informative. I have very little classical education so this book actually helped me learn a lot of Classical mythology and narrative, and in that sense it was actually a very satisfying use of my time.

Many of the theologians I admired during my turn leftwards were focused on questions of technology: Ivan Illich, Jacques Ellul, Ursula Franklin, and Paul Virilio – not all of whom I still admire. Mayor makes the case that ancient imaginings of automata and animated statues were almost always entangled with an aura of divinity and theological gravity. But the interesting distinction Mayor begins with is that of “made, not born”. There are these fascinating stories in Antiquity about artisans and highly skilled crafts people and/or gods making animated statues and guardians that one might imagine as analogous to the sort of creepy robots that Boston Dynamics experiments with today. The practice of 'creation' is very much an activity attributed to the gods, and the notion of humans engaging in such a practice hence is always an act of mimesis with theological implications, sometimes an act of unwarranted hubris, sometimes a subversive act threatening to the divine power(s).

In Mayor’s book, there is a fantastic chapter on Daedalus, the Greek figure whom the communist geneticist J.B.S. Haldane named one of his most famous books/essays after, saying of Daedalus:

“I fancy that the sentimental interest attaching to Prometheus has unduly distracted our attention from the far more interesting figure of Daedalus. It is with infinite relief that amidst a welter of heroes armed with gorgon’s heads or protected by Stygian baptisms the student of Greek mythology comes across the first modern man.”

One fascinating detail Mayor includes is the existence of some sceptics who associate the mythic stories of Daedalus and the winged flight of Icarus with what was in fact the invention of sails:

“Some skeptical writers, such as Palaephatus (12 Daedalus) and Pausanias (9.11.4), rejected the myth of his flight, however. They suggested that the story arose because Daedalus was in reality the first inventor of sails, which archaic people had once likened to wings that allowed ships to “fly” over the waves. In this story, Icarus drowned at sea and was buried by Heracles on the island of Icaria.”

This is something that reminds me of Paul Virilio’s comments in his book Speed and Politics:

“The sea is open, the joining of the demos and the element of freedom (of movement). The "right to the sea," it seems, is a particularly "Western creation, just as, later, the "right to air space" will be the element in which Air Force Marshall Goering dreams of installing diefliegende nation, the Nazi demos.

"Every German must learn to fly... Wings hang dormant under mens skins." Watching the launch of the first rockets, Hitler, who feels military defeat coming, tells Dornberger…

Thus a new category of political rights was created on the oceans: the "right to the sea" initially "an entity that was more emotional and poetic than rational," they said. It is true that the Mediterranean cities—overpopulated, insular nations poor in goods and surface area, dreaming of "working the sea" by creating a nautical demos— appear unwilling to be subjected to ancient terrestrial law. The open sea was to compensate for every social, religious and moral constraint, for every political and economic oppression, even for the physical laws due to the earth's gravity, to continental crampedness.

But the right to the sea very quickly became the right to crime, to a violence that was also freed from every constraint... Soon, the "empire of the seas" replaces the open sea.”

It’s so fascinating how these notions of naval technology (even into modernity) had resonances with both flight/aviation as well as political freedom and the abandonment of moral restraint. The British Navy principally sourced their white pine sail masts for their naval fleet from sawmills setup around the rivers in and around Lake Ontario where I live and it’s so important to emphasize how entangled the history of science and technology is with the history of empire and colonization. The commodity chains of British imperial warfare technology were direct causes of Indigenous dispossession, where sawmills completely collapsed the salmon populations and deforested the hunting grounds upon which the Anishinaabeg peoples of the area relied upon.

I grew up steeped within Christian theology and I of course have been unable to escape certain themes regarding the abolition of death (often depicted as a slave master within portions of the Christian and Jewish biblical canons). But I think Mayor, in describing Sisyphus brought up really fascinating questions which are very relevant to questions about technological creation, artificial intelligence, and immortality/divinity:

“Several ancient Greek myths caution that cheating death causes chaos on earth and involves grievous suffering. “Sisyphean task” is a cliché connoting futile, impossible work—but few recall why Sisyphus must push a boulder to the top of a hill forever. Sisyphus, the legendary tyrant of Corinth, was known for his cruelty, craftiness, and deceit. According to the myth, he slyly captured and bound up Thanatos (Death) with chains. Now no living things on earth could die. Not only did this deed overturn the natural order and threaten overpopulation, but no one could sacrifice animals to the gods or eat any meat. What would happen to politics and society if tyrants lived forever? Moreover, men and women who were old and sick or wounded were condemned to suffer interminably. The war god Ares was especially irritated because if no one was in danger of dying, warfare was no longer a serious enterprise…”

The most interesting comment Mayor makes is that of the tyrant and the inability for revolution. However, such an abolition of death would also mean fearless subjects who could rise up without fear. I also very much enjoyed the chapter on Pandora (an automaton/robot crafted by the gifted Hephaestus as a ‘beautiful evil’ to unleash the ‘evil spirits’ in her jar – later rendered a ‘box’) and I did not know that it was part of the story of Prometheus and the theft of fire.

The chapter on Prometheus was also excellent, with a fantastic section on Mary Shelley, William Godwin, and the influence of Galvani and eletrostimulation experiments on their literary work. Haldane spoke of scientists as figures in the cast of Prometheus:

“The chemical or physical inventor is always a Prometheus. There is no great invention, from fire to flying, which has not been hailed as an insult to some god. But if every physical and chemical invention is a blasphemy, every biological invention is a perversion. There is hardly one which, on first being brought to the notice of an observer from any nation which had not previously heard of their existence, would not appear to him as indecent and unnatural."

In many ways I think the Christian eschatological notion of resurrection is as perverse and unsettling as Shelley’s Promethean monster. It’s actually a fascinating thematic linkage between revolutionary Promethean acquisition of fire and the revolutionary peasant notions of resurrection that so enflamed and/or threatened revolt among the Jewish proletariat within the Roman empire. This is fascinating because Prometheus is so often written as the first creator of humans in Greek mythology, and also their sympathizer providing them technology and tools like fire that threaten the power of the other gods. In so many ways ‘invention’ and ‘creation’ follows in that cast of Prometheus, and so notions of creating ‘artificial intelligence’ follows a geneaology that extends back millennia.

Anyway, to return to notions of Pandora’s jar or the galvanism that so compelled Mary Shelley, one other interesting thing Mayor mentions is the ‘Baghdad battery’, which she describes as:

“…controversial: some historians take them as evidence of early Persian experimentation with electricity. Unfortunately, the artifacts vanished in the looting of Baghdad’s Iraq Museum in 2003, but written descriptions, diagrams, and photographs provide the details.

The small terra-cotta jars, each about five inches long, contain cylinders made of iron rods encased in rolled sheets of copper, sealed at the top with asphalt (bitumen) and at the bottom with a copper disc and asphalt: the copper-wrapped iron rod projects above the asphalt at the top. The jars’ inner walls show evidence of corrosion. No wires were recovered: they may have been overlooked or corroded away. It is worth noting that very thin bronze “needles” have been found with similar jars (lacking cylinders) in the same region. The materials and construction seem to suggest a primitive galvanic cell. Modern experiments demonstrate that replicas of the Baghdad batteries produce a feeble 0.5 volt current, using a 5 percent electrolyte solution, with substances available in antiquity such as grape juice, vinegar, wine, or sulfuric or citric acid. If strung together and connected, a cluster of the jars might produce a higher output, enough to give a mild shock akin to static electricity.”

Finally, one last thing I wanted to comment on was the fascinating details of waterwheels that Mayor includes, which were used to power various automata throughout the centuries. Mayor includes a narrative from India that is influenced by tales of Roman ‘robots’:

“In “Rome,” robots carry out trade and farming, and they capture and execute criminals. No robot makers are ever allowed to leave “Rome” or reveal their secrets—if they do, robot assassins will pursue and kill them. Rumors of the fabulous Roman robots reached India, inspiring a young artisan-engineer who wished to learn how to make automata. e young man lived in Pataliputta. As noted above, Pataliputta was the large fortified city built by King Ajatasatru in about 490 BC. It reached a peak of prosperity as King Asoka’s capital in the mid-third century BC.

In some versions, the whirling guardian automata are driven by a waterwheel or some other mechanism. In one tale, the engineer god Visvakarman helps Asoka, destroying the robots by shooting arrows precisely into the bolts that hold the spinning constructions together.”

The most fascinating mention of water wheels, for me, was the one powering automaton puppets in China:

“Mechanical innovations in early China are also well documented by historians. By the third century BC in China, for example, Qin dynasty (221–206 BC) artisans had developed mechanized puppets and other devices. In about AD 250, the engineer Ma Jun invented a precise south-pointing figure in a gear-driven chariot and a puppet theater powered by a waterwheel.”

Most fascinating is that Mayor’s citation for this is the work of Joseph Needham, who was, besides being one of the most renowned chemists of the 20th century, also a prominent British communist who I first heard of in Hobsbawm’s Age of Extremes. I am currently reading a history of the vertical waterwheel called “Stronger Than a Hundred Men” as suggested to me by my academic advisor. I will certainly be on the lookout for any mention of Needham’s work and water mill technology in China.

Anyway, this was a really fascinating book that I enjoyed thoroughly, even if some of it was a bit over my head.

[Tanya · Rating 4 out of 5]

Hephaestus’s marvels were envisioned by an ancient society not usually considered technologically advanced. Feats of biotechne were dreamed up by a culture that existed millennia before the advent of robots that win complex games, hold conversations, analyze massive mega-data, and infer human desires. But the big questions are as ancient as myth: Whose desires will AI robots reflect? From whom will they learn? [loc. 3576]

Intrigued by the mechanical marvels of The Hymn to Dionysus (which the author has said are based on the writings of Hero of Alexandria) I wanted to learn more about ancient machines. Gods and Robots is perhaps not the ideal book for this, but it was fascinating. Mayor (whose The First Fossil Hunters I found immensely readable) covers mythological and historical stories about immortality, mechanical humanoids, artifical limbs, and Daedalus's self-powered flight to Sicily from Crete. While the focus is on Greek texts, Mayor also mentions Indian, Sumerian and Etruscan myth. And she references modern concepts and culture, including Blade Runner, Karel Čapek, the uncanny valley effect and the current debate about the merits and pitfalls of AI.

The recipes for immortality were interesting (as was Mayor's explanation of the death of Jason's father Aeson by drinking bulls' blood, believed to confer immortality but lethal because of 'the relatively high coagulation factor of ox blood, an effect later affirmed by Aristotle' (loc. 780)) but I was really there for the moving statues and other mechanical marvels of the ancient world. Mayor includes images from vases, carved gems etc which show scenes of techne: Prometheus building a human from the skeleton outwards, or Athene constructing a horse. 

Mayor refutes the argument that Bronze Age humans couldn't conceive of automatons because their technology wasn't sufficient to make such things: firstly, one doesn't need to be able to make what one imagines (see under 'fiction') and secondly, the Greeks (and probably other cultures) did make automata, animated statues etc -- though perhaps not as marvellous as the ones they imagines the god Hephaestus making, as mentioned in the Iliad: “Fashioned of gold in the image of maidens, the servants moved quickly, bustling around their master like living women”. She explores accounts of bronze figures that moved and made sounds, and suggests ways in which these might have been made and powered (mercury, steam, water...) and Socrates' argument that such automata should be chained, to prevent them from escaping -- like human slaves.

I also learnt a lot about agalmatophilia 'statue lust': "another infamous case, reported by Athenaeus (second century AD), one Cleisophus of Selymbria locked himself in a temple on the island of Samos and tried to have intercourse with a voluptuous marble statue, reputedly carved by Ctesicles. Discouraged by the frigidity and resistance of the stone, Cleisophus “had sex with a small piece of meat instead” [loc. 1903]. Mayor describes the Pygmalion myth as 'an unsettling description of one of the first female android sex partners in Western history' rather than a romantic love story.

A fascinating read, thoroughly referenced and with plenty of illustrations: very readable.

[Almudena Carrasco · Rating 4 out of 5]

Todos los libros de Adrienne Mayor exploran ideas fascinantes y que no se tocan casi nunca en Historia, al menos no de forma intensa, y este no es la excepción. A pesar del título, los robots como tal no son el centro de la investigación. Mayor está interesada en establecer paralelismos sobre nuestra búsqueda de la inmortalidad y la construcción de IAs con la filosofía y los mitos griegos (aunque también de otras zonas como China e India. ¡Una lástima que no hable más de ellos!), demostrando que ninguna de nuestras ideas es nueva y que siempre nos preocupan los mismos problemas. Ya en el pasado se planteaba la dicotomía de si las ginoides de Hefesto tenían, o no, conciencia, y si eso las volvía seres vivos que respetar. Un dilema que nos debe resultar familiar respecto a las inteligencias artificiales y su, en principio, inminente llegada.
Así, el libro puede ser un poco repetitivo porque en cada capítulo trata de examinar siempre las mismas "ideas", antes que explorar a fondo los mitos que está narrando. Sin embargo, es una muy buena lectura que descubre elementos de la mitología que podemos no haber considerado (o ni siquiera conocer) y que nos descubre una tecnología documentada que precede con mucho a la Revolución Industrial.

[Nelson Zagalo · Rating 3 out of 5]

Tinha grandes expectativas sobre "Gods and Robots: Myths, Machines, and Ancient Dreams of Technology" (2018) de Adrienne Mayor, que não se goraram por completo, mas que acabaram por ficar bastante aquém do enorme potencial. Esperava um discurso mais assente nos interstícios da tecnologia, na descoberta das criações humanas ao longo da história, com detalhe sobre os comos, nomeadamente as mecânicas, design, objetivos e inovação humana. Mas Mayor foca-se quase exclusivamente no lado mitológico, dando conta de alguns desses elementos passados ao real não forma de estátuas, mas centrando todo o seu discurso em hipóteses das representações míticas, oferecendo muito pouco sobre o lado material de quem criava e inovava.

Por isso não se espere muito sobre Antikythera ou aprofundamentos sobre a história dos autómatos, menos ainda sobre quaisquer outros fora da mitologia grega, já que todo o livro aí está sediado. Contudo, o livro oferece muita discussão sobre os grandes mitos gregos, sendo o primeiro capítulo dedicado a Talos o mais interessante de todos.

[imagem]
Talos é um mito sobre um autómato gigante, em bronze, criado para proteger Creta contra piratas e invasores.

Depois temos Medeia, Prometeu, Pandora, entre outros, mas que apesar de interessantes, contribuem muito pouco para as conclusões que nos oferece, nomeadamente os alertas e medos da IA contemporânea.


Publicado no VI:
https://virtual-illusion.blogspot.com...

[Friederike Saupe · Rating 5 out of 5]

Adrienne Mayor managed what up until now no other university Mandatory Reading had archived with me. It not only caught my interest in more than the general mandated way but even gave me the confidence to look further into the topic myself. With little to no female representation in the field I'm currently studying this book really gave me something to strive and work towards. A wonderfully put together and thought provoking collection of ancient myths, their technical successors (in some ways more than others) and at last the metaphorical value we can take from the ancient interpretations of artificial life and it's relationship with humanity in the future. A wonderful read ! Greetings from Germany ❤️

[Javier Alemán · Rating 4 out of 5]

Un recorrido de inmensa erudición por la historia de autómatas y robots a través de los mitos. Hace especial hincapié en la mitología griega pero también toca algunos puntos de la budista, de la egipcia o romana; además de una reflexión final sobre la influencia en los autómatas históricos. Quizá se alarga un poco pero es fantástico recordar a Talos, Pandora o Medea como precursora de la biotecnología.

[Minifig · Rating 4 out of 5]

El libro explora una idea interesante. Parte de distintos mitos clásicos estudia la diferencia entre personajes como Galatea y Pandora. La primera es una estatua de marfil animada por Venus para convertirla en una mujer real; la segunda es una mujer construida por Efesto gracias a sus habilidades como herrero.

A partir de la diferencia entre los orígenes de ambas mujeres (magia la primera, habilidad técnica la segunda) la autora especula acerca de la percepción que en la antigüedad se podía tener de la técnica y sus posibilidades. Así, compara estos mitos con nuestras actuales preocupaciones acerca de la inteligencia artificial, exploradas en obras como "2001" y "Blade Runner" (mencionada a menudo en el libro).

Aunque la idea es interesante y merece atención e interés, el libro exagera la interpretacion de los mismos buscando un paralelismo un tanto forzado en ocasiones.

[Michael Hauge · Rating 2 out of 5]

"Gods and Robots" is at once too broad and too narrow; too academic and too conversational; too technical and too simplistic. A more appropriate subtitle might specify that the overwhelming focus of the book is on Greek myth, with lip service paid to Chinese and Indian civilizations. I was frustrated throughout by the maddening half-academic style, full of three-word quotations of unnamed scholars and references to itself ('see chapter 3,' for example). I would have preferred to either read an academic article examining the primary sources (particularly the material evidence, which was intriguing), or a nonfiction book written in a less formal tone. In particular, the way modern technology is portrayed distracts from the content. "Robots" and "Artificial Intelligence" are always in inverted commas, and neither was ever defined to my satisfaction. The subject matter, at its core, is very interesting - I very much enjoyed learning about the myths and ancient devices themselves. However, the stultifying prose through which the reader must wade in order to arrive at these tidbits of knowledge obscures any fascination they might inspire. Overall, I found the attempts to connect ancient ideas of technology to the present tenuous at best, and extremely discontinuous at worst.

I think this book could have been much better presented by focusing first on ideas of artificial life in ancient Greek myth, and then on particular examples of technology (or art suggesting technology) inspired by these ideas that earlier emerged in myth. The author's concept of biotechne, "craft or science of life," is fascinating and well-developed; I think it should have been the main focus of the book, rather than trying to force connections to modern examples that will be outdated within a few years of publication. Alternatively, I would have liked to read a broader overview of ideas about technology in a variety of cultures, not just in the Hellenistic world.

[assaultwoof · Rating 3 out of 5]

Took me 8 months, but I finally finished it.
Information overload but in a good way.
I never knew that robots had such deep roots in Greek and Roman history. It was super fun reading this and drawing connections to my contemporary knowledge of robots. If you're a robot/old technology lover, I think this is a must-read.

[Naum · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good, but anticipated liking this more than I did.

[Joshua Glucksman · Rating 4 out of 5]

Most accessible academia award goes to!!

But so cringe that all the modern examples of automatons and biotech are literally misses and drones all named after these poor Greek myths…

[Philologios · Rating 4 out of 5]

⭐⭐⭐⭐ DIOSES Y ROBOTS: MITOS, MÁQUINAS Y SUEÑOS TECNOLÓGICOS EN LA ANTIGÜEDAD, de Adrienne Mayor.

Me gustan los libros que me abren los ojos, que me descubren cosas, me hacen replantearme lo que creía saber... ¡Y me entretienen! Este es el caso de DIOSES Y ROBOTS. Sin ser un GRAN libro, es un libro muy disfrutable y con grandes ideas.

MUY RECOMENDABLE (y amena) LECTURA para todos los interesados en los mitos griegos y en la ciencia ficción.


EN CONTRA
El principal "PERO" es que a veces cuesta ENTENDER CUÁL ES LA TESIS DE LA AUTORA, el motor de este libro. ¿Cuál es el hilo que une todos los temas que toca? ¿Qué quiere transmitir Mayor? ¿Acaso que tras los mitos griegos se esconde una intuición de las posibilidades tecnológicas del ser humano, particularmente la creación de vida artificial y la ampliación de las facultades naturales? Como tesis, a veces resulta endeble, un demasiado sutil hilo conductor.

Por otro lado, la PROYECCIÓN DE ESAS "INTUICIONES" EN LA ACTUALIDAD suena a menudo aventurada, artificiosa, innecesaria: Ícaro-propulsión humana; Titono-prolongación artificial de la vida; Talos-androides; Medea-drogas militares... Personalmente, más que darme un contexto, lo que hacen esos anexos es sacarme de la lectura.

A FAVOR
Y sin embargo, LAS CONCLUSIONES ÉTICAS que se extraen sí que resultan relevantes. ¿Cuál es el valor de la vida humana? ¿Preveían los griegos por dónde podían ir las "mejoras" del ser humano? ¿Se han cumplido esas previsiones? ¿Hasta qué punto las previsiones de los griegos han condicionado los avances tecnológicos? ¿Es posible que esas coincidencias sean causales o forman parte de anhelos humanos universales? ¿Hasta dónde se llegó en la antigüedad clásica y cuánto se ha perdido?

Por otro lado, y ahí es dónde me ha llegado más el libro, ABORDA MITOS CONCRETOS Y LOS EXPRIME BAJO NUEVOS ENFOQUES. A destacar el magnífico capítulo dedicado a "LA CAJA" DE PANDORA. BRUTAL. Filología meets Arqueología. La importancia de leer libros nuevos, actualizados. La importancia de la investigación.

ADRIANNE MAYOR
Investigadora de la Universidad de Stanford, Mayor es una autora más que solvente. El libro incluye una extensa bibliografía, índices y muy ricas notas. No son “idas de olla”, vamos. Añadir que su prosa es ágil y que el libro se lee fácilmente. Sabe enganchar a un lector no necesariamente familiarizado con la antigüedad clásica, la ciencia o los mitos. Y los guiños a la cultura popular cinematográfica y literaria son continuos (Blade Runner, Anne Rice, Jasón y los Argonautas, Mary Shelley…) sin perder nunca el rigor y la solvencia académica.

BRAVO POR DESPERTA FERRO
La edición es magnífica. El volumen es estético a la vez que práctico (tapa blanda). Muy bien diseñado también para la consulta puntual.
¡Destacar la labor del traductor, Tomás Aguilera! Por momentos parece saber casi más que la autora sobre los temas expuesto. ¡Sus notas, más que pertinentes!

[Artur Coelho · Rating 4 out of 5]

Os vestígios do dispositivo computacional que chamamos de mecanismo de Antikythera são a ponta de um enorme iceberg de conhecimento desaparecido. O saber mecânico da antiguidade perdeu-se nos seus objetos físicos, ficando registado nos fragmentos de obras técnicas e históricas que nos chegaram da antiguidade. São histórias de mecanismos utilitários e maravilhas mecânicas, que nos fazem intuir uma continuidade ao longo dos tempos do desafio de construir máquinas, algumas a simular a vida.

Os mitos gregos também nos trazem uma enorme riqueza de referências que, vistas à luz da tecnologia actual, parecem falar-nos diretamente de andróides, inteligência artificial ou biotecnologia. Histórias de deuses e mortais, criadores de guerreiros metálicos (como nos épicos de Jasão ou o mito de Talos, o guerreiro de bronze que protegia Creta). Estátuas que ganham o sopro da vida, como no mito algo misógino de Pigmalião, ou mulheres construídas para semear a discórdia pelo mundo. Nunca me tinha apercebido que, no mito de Pandora, esta não era uma mulher de carne e osso, antes, foi construída pelos deuses com o propósito de soltar os males no mundo. Hephaestus, o forjador das armas e escudos dos deuses, teria criado tripés autónomos para o auxiliar, bem como belas damas de ouro. Estes, e outros mitos parecem mostrar que há uma continuidade entre o nosso contemporâneo fascínio pela tecnologia e sua possibilidades, e os substratos culturais que influenciaram a nossa cultura ocidental.

Adrienne Mayor leva-nos num périplo aprofundado pelos mitos, e vestígios históricos. O fio condutor é a tecnologia, nas suas vertentes de simulação de vida e criação de vida artificial. Mostra que as preocupações que hoje temos, de tecnologia fora do controlo, o que é, realmente, ser vivo quando os mecanismos simulam a vida, os riscos da tecnologia militarizada, estavam presentes na mitologia grega. Hoje, a ciência e tecnologia estão no limiar de nos colocar nas mãos meios de realizar os sonhos dos mitos. Mayor mostra-nos essa linha de continuidade, levando-nos a perceber o fio condutor cultural e de ideias que alimenta a busca incessante pelo elevar dos patamares do desenvolvimento tecnológico.

[Virginprune · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book covers a fascinating topic, and having read the introductory text I was expecting to be wowed by a work of 4- or 5-star quality. Potentially, this is such a book. The author has clearly conducted extensive research (especially with regard to ancient Greek myths) and supplies many captivating examples.
The book really needs a re-working, though.
Firstly, in terms of structure and content. It just doesn't seem as if there is a clear plan to the order of arrangement. I don't see clear development and exploration of themes. It's unclear whether the remit is to include other ancient cultures or not, the delineation between AI, robots, simple machines and art is poorly handled (save perhaps in a glossary at the end) and for these and many other issues of organisation it would be really helpful to have this explicitly stated, in a foreword and within the text.
Where the book works best is in the exploration of ancient Greek myths. The text is greatly enhanced by the inclusion of numerous illustrations, including many glorious glossy colour photographs of artefacts.
Claims are made of deep relevance to today's culture and our increasing reliance (and fear of) automation, but these are only very thinly handled. These moral and technical aspects are where the book is weakest, and could really profitably be extended.
Also, references to modern robot issues seem unduly concentrated on films (Metropolis, Blade Runner) just as almost every other page seems to have a reference back to the ancient robot first described in the book (Talos). This would have benefited from more judicious editing.

This is a book which is very readable, and could be very much better!

[Enrique Gato · Rating 4 out of 5]

Al no tener prácticamente ni idea de mitología griega he aprendido mucho con este libro. La superposición de cultura clásica narrada junto al uso de palabros tecnocientÍficos actuales (Talos como un androide IA con capacidad autónoma, Pandora como una robot femme fatale capaz de traer el desastre al mundo) me ha sido muy atractivo. El mensaje trae la sensación de ambigüedad e incertidumbre ante los avances tecnológicos que podamos ver en nuestros días desde una perspectiva milenaria, narra a lo largo de 9 capítulos distintos mitos entre los que se encuentran Dédalo y Prometeo, y otros en los que se mencionan los avances que crearon Arquímedes y Herón de Alejandría.
En general lo he disfrutado aunque algunas partes (por la forma en sí del mismo libro) se me antojan un poco excesivas de alusión al principio de precaución que la autora cree que no estamos siguiendo en absoluto, en gran parte porque los mitos tienen esa carga de recelo y advertencia. Yo al contrario pienso que muchas veces lo utilizamos en exceso. Las historias que tienen como moraleja la repercusión de la capacidad tecnológica humana traen consigo esa sensación de estar jugando a cosas que pueden superarnos, pero a la vez creo que los antiguos simplemente tenían anhelos respecto a las posibilidades que su imaginación les permitía y que el mundo real se encargaba de eliminar, hoy en día tenemos un poco más de margen aunque probablemente no hayamos visto nada.
Buen libro, gracias Sergio.