Legends and Stories
A Parable from the Book Lieh Tzu
Book V of the Book
of Lieh-Tzü
A book of Taoist
teachings from the
3rd century B.C.
Khwai Shuh
In ancient China: The bringing of a statue to life so that it
can serve its master.
Ganesha
Durga
Egyptian Shabtis
Egyptian Shabtis
Spell 6 of:
'The Book Of The Dead'
instructs the Shabti as
follows...
O Shabti, If ‘the deceased’ be
summoned to do any work which has
to be done in the realm of the dead,
to make arable the fields,
to irrigate the land
or to convey sand from East to West;
"Here I Am", you shall say, "I Shall Do It".
Mokkerkalfe
A clay giant in Norse mythology. He was built to help the
giants defend themselves against Thor. They could find no
heart big enough, so he had just a mare’s heart. He
crumbled in battle.
http://www.mainlesson.com/display.php?author=mabie&book=norse&story=giant
Hephaestus
Vulcan
Blacksmith of the Gods
The Forge of Hephaestus
Gaetano Gondolfi 1734-1802
Vulcan
Peter Paul Rubens
Hephaestus
Hephaestus created automata,
including tripods that walked
back and forth to Mount
Olympus.
He also created …
Vulcan
Hephaestus
Vulcan
Hephaestus created automata,
including tripods that walked
back and forth to Mount
Olympus.
He also created the first
woman: Pandora, whose
dowry was a bag of evils, thus
attaining revenge upon the
Titans.
Pandora & Hephaestus, Athenian red-figure
amphora C5th B.C., Ashmolean Museum
Talos - Τάλως
One version of the Talos myth: Talos was
forged of bronze by Hephaestus, but he
had one vein that ran from his neck down
to his ankle where it was closed by a
single nail.
His job was to guard Crete. He patrolled
the island three times a day. He pelted
invaders with stones.
He attacked the Argonauts in this way.
But Medea saw the nail and pulled it out.
The lifeblood of Talos ran out and he died.
Talos - Τάλως
Talos & the Argonauts, Athenian
red-figure krater C4th B.C., Jatta
Museum, Ruvo
Talos - Τάλως
http://www.imdb.com/video/screenplay/vi4187095321/
Golden Female Automata
There were golden handmaids also who worked for him
[Hephaestus], and were like real young women, with sense
and reason, voice also and strength, and all the learning of
the immortals; these busied themselves as the king bade
them, while he drew near to Thesis …
Homer (8th c BC), The Iliad, Book 18.
Autonomous Ships
Therefore, Sir, do you on your part affect no more concealment nor reserve
in the matter about which I shall ask you; it will be more polite in you to give
me a plain answer; tell me the name by which your father and mother over
yonder used to call you, and by which you were known among your
neighbours and fellow-citizens. There is no one, neither rich nor poor, who is
absolutely without any name whatever, for people's fathers and mothers give
them names as soon as they are born. Tell me also your country, nation, and
city, that our ships may shape their purpose accordingly and take you there.
For the Phaeacians have no pilots; their vessels have no rudders as those of
other nations have, but the ships themselves understand what it is that we
are thinking about and want; they know all the cities and countries in the
whole world, and can traverse the sea just as well even when it is covered
with mist and cloud, so that there is no danger of being wrecked or coming to
any harm
Homer, The Odyssey, Book 8
How Realistic Is That?
The 2007 Urban Grand
Challenge
A crash in the DARPA Urban Challenge (Nov, 2007)
Moving Statues
Some say that a soul moves the body in which it dwells
just as it moves itself; as did Democritus, who spoke
like Philip the comic poet; for the latter relates that
Daedalus (whose name means “cunning worker”)
made a wooden Venus mobile by pouring quicksilver
into it.
Aristotle (384 – 322 B.C.), de Anima, Chapter 3
http://www.answers.com/topic/moving-statues
Aristotle Wondered
So any piece of property can be regarded as a tool enabling
a man to live, and his property is an assemblage of such
tools; a slave is a sort of living piece of property; and like
any other servant is a tool in charge of other tools. For
suppose that every tool we had could perform its task,
either at our bidding or itself perceiving the need, and if –
like the statues made by Daedalus or the tripods of
Hephaestus, of which the poet says that ‘self-moved they
enter the assembly of the gods’ – shuttles in a loom could
fly to and fro and a plucker play a lyre of their own accord,
then master craftsmen would have no need of servants nor
masters of slaves.
Aristotle, Politics, Book 1, Chapter 4 (1253b)
(C 350 BCE)
Pygmalion and Galatea
Recounted by Ovid in about 5 CE
Jean-Michel Moreau le Jeune
(Les Métamorphoses d'Ovide,
Paris 1806).
The Mabinogion
A collection of 11 stories
taken from Welsh
manuscripts. The first
manuscripts are dated
between 1350 and 1410,
but the stories are earlier,
probably first appearing
sometime between 1060
and 1200.
The Mabinogion
Math said, ‘Let us use our magic and enchantments to conjure up a woman out
of flowers.’ By then Lleu had the stature of a man and was the handsomest lad
anyone had ever seen. Math and Gwydion took the flowers of oak and broom
and meadowsweet and from these conjured up the loveliest and most beautiful
girl anyone had seen; they baptized her with the form of baptism that was used
then, and named her Blodeuedd.
—The Mabinogion (“Math the Son of Mathonwy”)
Rabbi Eleazar of Worms
c. 1160 - 1230
http://emol.org/kabbalah/seferyetzirah/commentaryeleazar.html
How to create a Golem: http://emol.org/kabbalah/golem/index.html
Albertus Magnus
1193/1209 – 1280
Bavarian philosopher,
theologian, Catholic
saint, Dominican friar,
scientist, astrologer
Advocated the peaceful
coexistence of science and
religion.
A story from the New York Times, April 29, 1883
Albertus Magnus
Joos van Gent, c.1475
The Automaton of Albertus Magnus?
Albertus is said to have manufactured
a life-size animated servant. In one
version of the tale, Thomas Aquinas
destroyed the automaton when he
encountered it in the street, believing
it to be the work of the devil. The
creature - made of metal, wood,
glass, wax and leather - is said to
have been able to talk and open the
door for visitors and to serve dinner to
guests.
A story from the New York Times, April 29, 1883
Albertus Magnus
Albertus in later literature:
• Shelly, Frankenstein, where
Albertus is referred to as one of
Victor Frankenstein's chosen
readings.
• Hawthorne: The Birth-mark
• Melville, The Bell Tower.
• Heinlein, Glory Road, in which the
hero, Scar Gordon, reads a book of
magic by Albertus.
Roger Bacon
1214 – 1294
English
philosopher,
scientist,
Franciscan friar,
alchemist, and
astrologist
The Honourable History of Friar Bacon and Friar Bungay
A comedy, written c. 1589 by Robert Greene.
One plot element in the play:
In collaboration with another magician, Friar Bungay, Bacon
labors toward his greatest achievement: the creation of an
artificial head made of brass, animated by demonic influence,
that can surround England with a protective wall of the same
metal. The brazen head speaks three times, saying "Time is,"
"Time was," and Time is past"
Then there is a flash of lightning and a
hand appears, which breaks the Head
with a hammer.
But Bacon sleeps through this because his servant Miles
doesn't have the wit to wake his master in time.
Medieval Talking Bronze Heads
Among the people reputed to have a brazen head were:
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
Roger Bacon
Pope Sylvester II (Gerbert)
Albertus Magnus
Virgil
Robert Grosseteste
Anicius Manlius Severinus Boethius
Faust
Enrique de Villena
Arnaldus de Villa Nova
And the Legend Lives On
Quoth he, “My head’s not made of brass
as Friar Bacon’s noddle was”.
- Samuel Butler, Hudibras, ii, 2 (1660-1680)
Bacon trembling for his brazen head.
- Alexander Pope, Dunciad, iii, 104 (1728)
Like Friar Bacon’s brazen head, I’ve spoken,
Time is, time was, time’s past.
- Lord Byron, Don Juan, I, 217-18 (1819 -1824)
Homunculi
Paracelsus (1493 – 1541)
A scientist and alchemist who wrote that
he could create a miniature human:
A man’s semen must be put into a hermetically - sealed retort, buried in
horse manure for 40 days, and ‘magnetized’. During this time, it begins to live
and move, and at the end of the 40 days it resembles a human form, but is
transparent and without a body. It must now be fed daily with the arcanum
(hidden mystery) of human blood (arcanum sanguinis hominis), and be
maintained at the constant temperature of a mare’s womb, for a period of 40
weeks, and it will grow into a human child, with all its limbs developed, as
normal as any child born of a woman, except that it will be much smaller. It
may be raised and educated like any other child, until he grows older and
obtains reason and intellect, and is able to take care of himself.
Homunculi
Johann Wolfgang
von Goethe
Faust (1806 -1829)
Rabbi Loew and the
Golem
The Golem legend from 16th century
Prague
Der Golem und die Tanzerin
A 1917 film by Paul Wehener
The Golem in Prague Today
A children’s
book
The Golem in Prague Today
A t-shirt
The Golem in Prague Today
Rabbi Loew’s
Tomb in Prague
Der Golem, Gustav Meyrink
1915 (German), 1928 (English)
A Review: http://www.laurahird.com/newreview/thegolem.html
Avram Davidson – The Golem
A modern story in LA.
http://www.art-anima.com/forumi/index.php?topic=397.0
Another People From Earth/Clay Story
In Chapter 3 of Songs of Chu (Qu
Tuan, c. 340 - 278 BC), it is said that
Nüwa molded figures from the yellow
earth, giving them life and the ability to
bear children. After demons fought
and broke the pillars of the heavens,
Nüwa worked unceasingly to repair
the damage, melting down the fivecoloured stones to mend the heavens
The Chinese goddess Nüwa (女娲)
René Descartes
The story goes that Descartes,
who had lost his real daughter
when she was 5, created the
automaton daughter, Ma Fille
Francine in around 1640.
Francine could do somersaults
on a tightrope. All went well until
Descartes took it with him on a
sea voyage, where it was thrown
overboard by either the captain
or the sailors, terrified that it was
the work of the devil.
Descartes was a dualist: he believed that the body operated like a machine
but that humans (and only humans) have a mind (soul) that is nonmaterial.
Missing from Our List?
Aniconism
Islam
Narrated Aisha: Allah's Apostle returned from a journey when I had
placed a curtain of mine having pictures over (the door of) a
chamber of mine. When Allah's Apostle saw it, he tore it and said,
"The people who will receive the severest punishment on the Day of
Resurrection will be those who try to make the like of Allah's
creations." So we turned it (i.e., the curtain) into one or two
cushions.
—Sahih al-Bukhari, 7:72:838
A hadith is a saying or an act of tacit approval or disapproval
ascribed either validly or invalidly to the prophet Muhammad.
So, Is the Idea Important?
Does a lack of examples of human-created creatures
mean that, in this culture:
• The idea didn’t occur
• No one took it seriously?
The Sandman
A Story by E.T.A. Hoffmann, 1817.
The Sandman
The Sandman visits. Nathaniel (a
small child) is terrified.
The Sandman
Nathaniel believes that the Sandman is
the lawyer Coppelius, who engages in
alchemy with Nathaniel’s father.
One night, an experiment explodes and
Nathaniel’s father is killed.
The Sandman
Years later, Nathaniel is engaged to Clara.
He is away at school and is visited by Coppola, a
barometer salesman.
The Sandman
Nathaniel thinks that Coppola is
Copelius and he’s spooked.
But Spalanzani, the new physics
professor says he’s known him for
years.
The Sandman
Spalanzani has a daughter,
Olympia.
“A very tall and slender lady, extremely wellproportioned and most splendidly attired, sat in
the room by a little table on which she had laid
her arms, her hands being folded together.
She sat opposite the door, so that I could see
the whole of her angelic countenance. She did
not appear to see me, and indeed there was
something fixed about her eyes as if, I might
almost say, she had no power of sight. It
seemed to me that she was sleeping with her
eyes open. I felt very uncomfortable, and
therefore I slunk away into the lecture-room
close at hand.”
The Sandman
Nathaniel goes home to visit Clara. He
reads her a dark poem he’s written.
She says:
“Nathaniel, dearest Nathaniel, do throw that mad,
senseless, insane stuff into the fire! ”
He cries at her:
“Oh, inanimate, accursed automaton!”
Nathaniel and Clara’s brother agree to a
duel but Clara stops them and everyone
is reconciled.
The Sandman
Nathaniel returns and ends up
living across the street from
Spalanzani and Olympia.
The Sandman
Coppola visits Nathaniel selling:
"pretty eyes, pretty eyes!"
Nathaniel is spooked, but calms
himself down and buys a
telescope.
Mario Laboccetta
The Sandman
Nathaniel watches Olympia
through his telescope.
The Sandman
Nathaniel goes to
Spalanzani’s party and
is more taken with
Olympia, who plays
the harpsichord, sings
and dances (stiffly).
Jeremy Rizza
The Sandman
Nathaniel eventually tells
Olympia of his passion for her,
to which she replies only "Ah,
ah!".
The Sandman
Nathaniel’s friend says to him:
'Be kind enough, brother, to tell me how a sensible fellow like
you could possibly lose your head over that wax face, over
that wooden doll up there?'
To us - pray do not take it ill, brother she appears singularly
stiff and soulless. Her shape is well proportioned - so is her
face - that is true! She might pass for beautiful if her glance
were not so utterly without a ray of life - without the power of
vision. Her pace is strangely regular, every movement seems
to depend on some wound-up clockwork. Her playing and her
singing keep the same unpleasantly correct and spiritless time
as a musical box, and the same may be said of her dancing.
We find your Olympia quite uncanny, and prefer to have
nothing to do with her. She seems to act like a living being,
and yet has some strange peculiarity of her own.'
The Sandman
But Nathaniel continues to visit Olympia, reading
her the poems and mysticism that had so bored
Clara, and Olympia listens to it all and replies only
"Ah, ah!", which Nathaniel interprets as
understanding.
The Sandman
Nathaniel goes to propose to
Olympia.
Spalanzani and Coppelius are
fighting.
“Let go - let go! Rascal! - Scoundrel ! - Body and soul I've
risked upon it! - Ha, ha, ha! - That's not what we agreed to! - I,
I made the eyes! - I made the clockwork! - Stupid blockhead
with your clockwork! - Accursed dog of a bungling watchmaker! - OR with you ! - Devil ! - Stop ! - Pipe-maker! - Infernal
beast! - Stop ! - Get out! - Let go!”
The Sandman
Coppola (Coppelius) wins the struggle, and makes off with
the lifeless and eyeless body of Olympia.
Spalanzani yells at Nathaniel:
After him - after him - what are you waiting for ? Coppelius,
Coppelius - has robbed me of my best automaton - a work of twenty
years - body and soul risked upon it - the clockwork - the speech the walk, mine; the eyes stolen from you. The infernal rascal - after
him; fetch Olympia - there you see the eyes!
The Sandman
The sight of Olympia's eyes lying on the ground drives
Nathaniel to madness and he flies at the professor to
strangle him. He is pulled away by other people drawn
by the noise of the struggle, and in a state of insanity is
taken to the mad-house.
The Sandman
Nathaniel recovers. But Spalanzani is disgraced.
“ .. it was universally considered a quite unpardonable trick to smuggle a
wooden doll into respectable tea-parties in place of a living person - for
Olympia had been quite a success at tea-parties. The lawyers called it a
most subtle deception, and the more culpable, inasmuch as he had
planned it so artfully against the public that not a single soul - a few
cunning students excepted - had detected it, although all now wished to
play the wiseacre, and referred to various facts which had appeared to
them suspicious. Nothing very clever was revealed in this way. Would it
strike anyone as so very suspicious, for instance, that, according to the
expression of an elegant tea-ite, Olympia had, contrary to all usage,
sneezed oftener than she had yawned ? 'The former,' remarked this
fashionable person, 'was the sound of the concealed clockwork winding
itself up. Moreover, it had creaked audibly.' And so on.”
The Sandman
Nathaniel goes back to Clara. But then
he loses it again and tries to throw Clara
off a balcony. She is rescued by her
brother.
Nathaniel thinks he sees Coppelius. He
jumps off the balcony and dies.
The Sandman
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8G7g8lG_1T8
The Uncanny
The Sandman inspired
Sigmund Freud’s essay, The
Uncanny.
Frankenstein
Mary Shelley, 1818
The Nightingale
Written in 1844 by Hans Christian Anderson
A Modern Nightingale?
Hatsune Miku never
misses a beat, fluffs a line
or messes up a step.
初音ミク
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hatsune_Miku
A Modern Nightingale?
Hatsune Miku never
misses a beat, fluffs a line
or messes up a step. But
then she doesn't really
exist.
初音ミク
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hatsune_Miku
Video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GBucCNH78q4
Pinocchio
On the outside wall of a building in Monaco.
Big Bang Theory
Sheldon (on phone): Hello. This is Sheldon Cooper. I’m leaving a message for
Barry Kripke. Barry, It was pleasant seeing you today in the cafeteria. I saw that
you purchased the chef’s salad. Apparently, you did not know that the chef’s
salad is kitchen trickery, to utilize scrap meat. Nevertheless, I hope you enjoyed it.
I’m following up on our pending friendship, and I look forward to hearing from you
regarding its status. Sheldon Cooper.
Big Bang
Theory
Penny: What’s up with Ichabod?
Leonard: Oh he’s trying to make a new friend.
Penny: Oh really? Well, good for him.
Leonard: Well, unless he’s makes one out of wood like Gepetto, I don’t think it’s
gonna happen.
No Woman Born
Deirdre:
• Posthuman
• Subhuman ?
• Superhuman ?
A short story by Catherine Lucille Moore, 1944
Real Robot Dancing
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9vwZ5FQEUFg
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4t1NWH6G1f0
With Folded
Hands
1947
http://www.otr.net/?p=dimx
Robot Gods
There may be some important ways in which the
Japanese and western views of robots differ.
http://ofepicproportions.blogspot.com/2009/07/ave-machina-deus-estmachina.html