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machines? Were mythic narratives and scientific imagination inter-
related? The AI historian and futurist George Zarkadakis considers the
links between old stories about robots and AI research. He proposes a
feedback loop, a coevolution between mythic narratives and “scientific
endeavors throughout history.” 61 Speculations about original influence
are impossible to resolve. But one can discern mythical chords within
some historical inventions in antiquity. Indeed, it is striking that, just
as ancient mythology about artificial life and self- moving devices imag-
ined technological wonders made by divine craftsmen, so many historical
inventors crafted automata and mechanisms to illustrate or evoke the
ancient myths.
Millennia ago, visionaries initiated a series of “science- fiction” thought
experiments about superior beings creating artificial life, expressed in
mythical language. These imaginary automata, especially those like Talos
and Pandora, with physically realistic forms and quasi- conscious “minds”
that could interact with human beings on earth, evoked ambivalent re-
actions of awe, hope, and terror. Later, a group of brilliant inventors
constructed real automata and self- moving devices that replicated natural
forms, and their speculations and designs stimulated further experiments
and innovations. As in the world of mythology, real automata and ma-
chines could be used to dazzle, deceive, and dominate. As we saw in
chapter 8, inherent in the Pandora myth and proclaimed in Sophocles’s
paean to human ingenuity, techne, and ambition is a clear warning that
these gifts can lead humans to glory or to evil.
The exciting dream of artificial life, first spun in storytelling imagi-
nations, began to be realized in technological designs and engineered
machines in antiquity. The next two millennia witnessed immense tech-
nological change. Yet by the end of the twentieth century, the journey
of human creative vision and innovation had really only just begun. Ad-
vances are now accumulating at warp speed. Suspended above the un-
canny abyss of replicating life itself, we still swing between hope and ter-
ror unleashed by humans’ insatiable quest to imitate and improve nature.