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

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GODS AND ROBOTS ...

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PRINCETON UNIVERSITY PRESS PRINCETON & OXFORD ...

Copyright © 2018 by Adrienne Mayor Requests for permission to reproduce material from this work should be sent to permissions @p ...

for my brother MARK MAYOR ...

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I sometimes wonder whether robots were invented to answer philosophers’ questions — TIK- TOK ...

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ix  CONTENTS  List of Illustrations xi Acknowledgments xv Introduction. Made, Not Born 1 1 The Robot and the Witch: Talos and ...

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xi  ILLUSTRATIONS  COLOR PLATES ( following p. 184) Death of Talos Jason uses a tool to destroy Talos Foundry workers making ...

xii illustrations ...

illustrations xiii 1.11. Sir Artegall and the automaton Iron Knight Talus 1.12. Modern Talos missile 1.13. Modern TALOS special ...

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xv  ACKNOWLEDGMENTS  INSPIRED IN PART by the eidetic images of the wicked robot Maria in the silent film Metropolis (1927) and ...

xvi acknowledgments Tassinari for her generous discussions of Etruscan gems. Thanks to Mar- garet Levi, the Berggruen Institute, ...

1  INTRODUCTION  MADE, NOT BORN WHO FIRST IMAGINED the concepts of robots, automata, human en- hancements, and Artificial Inte ...

2 introduction Historians of science commonly believe that ancient myths about artificial life only describe inert matter brough ...

made, not born 3 figures possess superhuman ingenuity, extraordinary creativity, tech- nical virtuosity, and superb artistic ski ...