between myth and history 211
When did the Buddhist tale of Asoka and the “Roman robots” first
arise in India? The narrative appears to reflect genuine knowledge of ac-
tual engineering feats in the historical period of Ptolemy and Asoka, by
the third century BC. We know that the Mauryan and Hellenistic courts
sent envoys to each other, and they exchanged luxurious gifts to show off
their cultural achievements. Note that the legend relates that plans for
making automata reached India, and the emperor of the Greco- Roman
West sent a gift box containing a robot to Asoka. One cannot hope to
pinpoint the original date of the legend. But it seems safe to assume that
Asoka and his contemporaries would have been familiar with— and per-
haps even observed plans or miniature scale models of— automata and
other mechanical marvels in the West.
Mechanical devices and automata in mythology and in real life provoked
questions about ontology, humans and nonhumans, nature and artifice;
they challenged the borders separating illusion, reality, and possibility. A
large group of myths show that animated statues were certainly conceiv-
able at a very early date, long before historical mechanical devices proved
that imitating life with technology was practical. “Ancient mechanics
surprised its audience,” remarks Sylvia Berryman, and “experience with
technology changed views about what results could be produced,” about
what might be possible. Human imagination and curiosity drive creativity
and innovation. 60 Mythological stories about artificial life and as- yet-
unknown technology can be considered another, valid kind of “experi-
ence.” Imaginative scenarios in myth might well have helped shape an-
cient ideas and speculations about what results might be produced, what
wonders might be possible, if only one possessed the radically superior
technology and expertise of a Daedalus, Prometheus, or Hephaestus.
Were some marvels of artificially created life in the mythic traditions
cultural fantasies that embellished and extrapolated real- life theories
of technology or actual— if simpler— technological experiments? Or,
conversely— just as modern science fiction can anticipate future scientific
discoveries and sometimes even inspire technological innovations— is it
possible that tales of divine and legendary automata and devices chal-
lenged and inspired living inventors to design self- moving objects and