Who first imagined automatons? Long before technology made robots possible, the ancient Greeks explored ideas–and fears–about creating artificial life. As early as Homer, myths envisioned robotic servants, animated statues, and artificial intelligence. Sophisticated machines were also actually built in antiquity, reaching a climax with a profusion of self-moving devices and automatons in the city of learning, Alexandria, the original Silicon Valley.
Watch the conversation unfold on YouTube as Margaret Levi and Adrienne Mayor have an in-depth conversation about Mayor’s book “Gods and Robots.”