Gods and Robots

Adrienne Mayor entertainingly re-examines the various versions of these myths that survive in written and visual form and speculates about their origins. --The Economist [A] brilliant book. --Enlightened Economist The Greeks thought of everything, including sci-fi tropes such as androids and artificial intelligence, according to this lively study of mythology and technology. . . . Mayor's exploration of the endless inventiveness of the Greek imagination makes for an engrossing read. --Publishers Weekly An eye-opening tour of humankind's fascination with robots, androids, and automata from prehistory to now, Gods and Robots explores how our feelings about artificial life have always been intertwined with our feelings about humanity. --A. E. Stallings, poet and translator of Hesiod's Works and Days Gods and Robots is a hugely enjoyable book. Adrienne Mayor tackles a fascinating area of ancient experience and imagination that has barely been explored hitherto, and she does so with originality and vigor. --Armand D'Angour, University of Oxford This brilliant and incomparable book will astonish readers by showing the real technologies that lie behind ancient mythology. Adrienne Mayor presents fascinating and entertaining stories for pondering the deep questions of artificial life. Gods and Robots is a beautiful book. --M. Norton Wise, University of California, Los Angeles If you think robot ethics is only a modern problem, think again. As this fascinating book explains, robots have been envisioned--and feared--for thousands of years. Adrienne Mayor teleports us back to the ancient world, connecting the dots between mythology, ancient machines, and today's robots and other emerging technologies--and helping us understand our visions and anxieties about automation and what it means to be human. --Patrick Lin, coeditor of Robot Ethics 2.0: From Autonomous Cars to Artificial Intelligence In Gods and Robots, Adrienne Mayor describes how, more than 2,500 years before the modern computer, people told tales of autonomous machines that could labor, entertain, kill and seduce. . . . 'The age-old stories, ' she writes, 'raise questions of free will, slavery, the origins of evil, man's limits, and what it means to be human.' ---Matthew Hutson, Washington Post Beautifully written and elegantly argued, Gods and Robots reminds us that we are not the first to experience the uncanny awe that comes with the thought that our technology might produce something like nature. Equally attuned to real objects and mythic imagination, Adrienne Mayor offers surprising insights about both antiquity and our hopes and fears in the face of today's efforts to make autonomous machines. --Peter T. Struck, author of Divination and Human Nature: A Cognitive History of Intuition in Classical Antiquity Teeming with living statues, mechanical soldiers, divine beings, astonishing craftsmen, and canny sorceresses, God and Robots is an evocative account of the ancient Greeks' fascination with artificial life--one that reveals many resonances between ancient thinking and current debates around robotics and AI. --E. R. Truitt, author of Medieval Robots Vivid and exhilarating, Gods and Robots shows that humanity has been grappling with the idea of artificial life since the dawn of history, repeatedly running up against the same ethical conundrums. With uncanny timing, the book reveals how antiquity illuminates much of today's debates about AI, human-machine collaboration, and transhumanism. --George Zarkadakis, author of In Our Own Image: Savior or Destroyer? The History and Future of Artificial Intelligence A fascinating unpacking of ancient myths that feature robots and other lifelike beings, some of which bear an eerie resemblance to modern technology. . . . In her insightful analyses of these tales, Mayor is approachable and engaging, and she infuses many familiar stories with new energy in the context of technology. She adroitly explores the ethical aspects of artificial life, addressing big questions about sentience and agency through the lens of ancient ideas. She also makes a convincing argument that these imagined machines anticipated advances that are considered cutting-edge today. Ultimately, she leaves readers in awe of these thinkers who dreamed of 'androids' long before it was conceivable to build them. A collection of wondrous tales that present ancient myths as the proto-science fiction stories they are. --Kirkus In a breezy and thought-provoking account, Mayor describes how ancient Greek, Roman, Indian and Chinese myths expressed hopes and fears about human-made life long before conversational robots and computer chess champions flexed their algorithms. ---Bruce Bower, Science News A fascinating array of ancient stories and images that anticipate contemporary thoughts on artificial life. . . . Absorbing new book [by] an accessible and engaging writer. ---Peter Thonemann, Wall Street Journal [An] astonishing chronicle. ---Barb Kiser, Nature The Greeks [Mayor argues] envisioned . . . advanced technological artifacts driven by internal machinery [and] establishes the engineered nature of androids like Talos and Pandora. [Her] close analysis finds echoes of real historical techniques [and] nicely refutes those critics who might claim that artificial life achieved through engineering was an idea beyond the conceptual horizon of the ancients. ---William A. Wilson, Weekly Standard This is an excellent source book for confronting political and technological hubris then and now, the earliest arguable traces of modern fears. ---Peter Stothard, Spectator Dr. Mayor urges top tech bosses to closely analyse the stories of the Greeks as we close in on a future dominated by automated technologies. ---Harry Pettit, Daily Mail It is a place where megalomaniac leaders with an insatiable appetite for knowledge develop artificial intelligence and robots that pose grave dangers to humanity. Silicon Valley? No, Greek mythology. ---Mark Bridge, The Times In her new book, Gods and Robots, Adrienne Mayor draws comparisons between mythical androids and ancient robots and the AI of today. . . . Through detailed storytelling and careful analysis of popular myths, Mayor urges readers to consider lessons learned from these stories as we set about creating a new world with AI. . . . Wonderful storytelling, thorough research, and impressive expertise. ---Sarah Olson, Science