{"version":1,"type":"rich","provider_name":"Libsyn","provider_url":"https:\/\/www.libsyn.com","height":90,"width":600,"title":"From the archive: Myths, robots, and the origins of AI","description":"Hi friends, we're busy with some spring cleaning this week. We'll have a new episode for you in two weeks. In the meanwhile, enjoy this pick from our archives! _____ [originally aired Nov 30, 2022] When we talk about AI, we usually fixate on the future. What\u2019s coming next? Where is the technology going? How will artificial intelligences reshape our lives and worlds? But it's also worth looking to the past. When did the prospect of manufactured minds first enter the human imagination? When did we start building robots, and what did those early robots do? What are the deeper origins, in other words, not only of artificial intelligences themselves, but of our ideas about those intelligences?  For this episode, we have two guests who've spent a lot of time delving into the deeper history of AI. One is Adrienne Mayor; Adrienne is a Research Scholar in the Department of Classics at Stanford University and the author of the 2018 book, Gods and Robots: Myths, Machines, and Ancient Dreams of Technology. Our second guest is Elly Truitt; Elly is Associate Professor in the History & Sociology of Science at the University of Pennsylvania and the author of the 2015 book, Medieval Robots: Mechanism, Magic, Nature, and Art.  In this conversation, we draw on Adrienne's expertise in the classical era and Elly's expertise in the medieval period to dig into the surprisingly long and rich history of AI. We discuss some of the very first imaginings of artificial beings in Greek mythology, including Talos, the giant robot guarding the island of Crete. We talk about some of the very first historical examples of automata, or self-moving devices; these included statues that spoke, mechanical birds that flew, thrones that rose, and clocks that showed the movements of the heavens. We also discuss the long-standing and tangled relationships between AI and power, exoticism, slavery, prediction, and justice. And, finally, we consider some of the most prominent ideas we have about AI today and whether they had precedents in earlier times. This is an episode we've been hoping to do for some time now, to try to step back and put AI in a much broader context. It turns out the debates we're having now, the anxieties and narratives that swirl around AI today, are not so new. In some cases, they're millennia old.  Alright friends, now to my conversation with Elly Truitt and Adrienne Mayor. Enjoy!   A transcript of this episode is available here.   Notes and links 4:00 \u2013 See Adrienne\u2019s TedEd lesson about Talos, the \u201cfirst robot.\u201d See also Adrienne\u2019s 2019 talk for the Long Now Foundation. 7:15 \u2013 The Throne of Solomon does not survive, but it was often rendered in art, for example in this painting by Edward Poynter. 12:00 \u2013 For more on Adrienne\u2019s broader research program, see her website; for more on Elly\u2019s research program, see her website. 18:00 \u2013 For more on the etymology of \u2018robot,\u2019 see here. 23:00 \u2013 A recent piece about Aristotle\u2019s writings on slavery. 26:00 \u2013 An article about the fact that Greek and Roman statues were much more colorful than we think of them today. 30:00 \u2013 A recent research article about the Antikythera mechanism. 34:00 \u2013 See Adrienne\u2019s popular article about the robots that guarded the relics of the Buddha. 38:45 \u2013 See Elly\u2019s article about how automata figured prominently in tombs. 47:00 \u2013 See Elly\u2019s recent video lecture about mechanical clocks and the \u201cinvention of time.\u201d For more on the rise of mechanistic thinking\u2014and clocks as important metaphors in that rise\u2014see Jessica Riskin\u2019s book, The Restless Clock. 50:00 \u2013 An article about a \u201ctorture robot\u201d of ancient Sparta. 58:00 \u2013 A painting of the \u201cIron Knight\u201d in Spenser\u2019s The Faerie Queene.   Adrienne Mayor recommends: The Greeks and the New, by Armand D\u2019Angour Classical Traditions in Science Fiction, edited by Brett Rogers and Benjamin Stevens In Our Own Image, by George Zarkadakis Ancient Inventions, by Peter James and Nick Thorpe   Elly Truitt recommends: AI Narratives, edited by Stephen Cave, Kanta Dihal, and Sarah Dillon The Love Makers, by Aifric Campbell The Mitchells vs the Machines   You can read more about Adrienne\u2019s work on her website and follow her on Twitter. You can read more about Elly\u2019s work on her website and follow her on Twitter.   Many Minds is a project of the Diverse Intelligences Summer Institute (DISI) (https:\/\/disi.org), which is made possible by a generous grant from the Templeton World Charity Foundation to UCLA. It is hosted and produced by Kensy Cooperrider, with help from Assistant Producer Urte Laukaityte and with creative support from DISI Directors Erica Cartmill and Jacob Foster. Our artwork is by Ben Oldroyd (https:\/\/www.mayhilldesigns.co.uk\/). Our transcripts are created by Sarah Dopierala (https:\/\/sarahdopierala.wordpress.com\/). You can subscribe to Many Minds on Apple, Stitcher, Spotify, Pocket Casts, Google Play, or wherever you like to listen to podcasts. **You can now subscribe to the Many Minds newsletter here!** We welcome your comments, questions, and suggestions. Feel free to email us at: manymindspodcast@gmail.com. For updates about the show, visit our website (https:\/\/disi.org\/manyminds\/), or follow us on Twitter: @ManyMindsPod. ","author_name":"Many Minds","author_url":"https:\/\/disi.org\/manyminds\/","html":"