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The Mythological blueprint of AI: How the concept of Artificial Intelligence dates back to 2500 years ago
Similarly, some scholars, such as Adrienne Mayor, a research scholar of Stanford's Department of Classics and History of Science; Noel Sharkey, emeritus professor of AI and robotics at the University of Sheffield; Stephen Cave, the executive director of the Leverhulme Centre for the Future of Intelligence at the University of Cambridge; and Tom S. Mullaney, a professor of history at
Adrienne Mayor said, 'Our ability to imagine artificial intelligence goes back to ancient times.' The earliest themes of artificial intelligence, robots, and self-moving objects appear in the work of ancient Greek poets
The story of Hephaestus: The birth of Talos
The story of Hephaestus was first told in 700 BC by Hesiod. According to the story that is told, Talos was a giant bronze man built by Hephaestus, the Greek God of invention and metallurgy. He was a bronze automaton (self-operating robot) capable of decision-making, navigation, and defense. Aside from being an automaton, the reason why he is today suspected to be AI was his single vein of ichor. At the core of the automata, Talos, functioned on the 'divine fluid' that ran through him; this vein was said to be placed at his ankle, making only that one part of him vulnerable to mortal harm.
This vein of ichor, based on advancements made today, could be understood as a 'central power' or a 'logic system,' a processor of sorts. The other reasons, according to scholars, were that he was said to have been killed by Medea, not by brute force but rather by 'hacking' him and convincing him to nick his ankle and drain the ichor from his vein.
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Talos followed set paths and functions like an autonomous drone; his sole purpose was to protect the island of Crete. He recognized threats and reacted to them with force, which is compared to an input-based action or basic AI decision-making.
Pandora and the Pandora's Box:
The story that everyone grew up with paints Pandora to be an innocent woman who unintentionally opened a box of evil. However, there were two versions of this story written in 'Hesiod's Theogony.' The one where Pandora was merely a young, curiosity-filled maiden was a version that was published later and made famous. The original version portrayed her as fake with evil intentions, created by Hephaestus and ordered by Zeus to be sent to Earth to punish the humans for discovering fire.
Mayor argues that Pandora could have been an AI agent sent by Zeus, for her sole mission was to infiltrate the human world and open her jar filled with pain and miseries.
Maidens of gold, with the knowledge of the gods:
Talos and Pandora were not the only automata that he created; he also made a set of automated servants, who were made of gold but looked like women. In Homer's works, Hephaestus was said to have implanted these artificial maidens with the 'knowledge of the gods.'
These creations were not mere daydreams; they rather reflected human beings' fascination with replicating human intelligence, emotions, and knowledge via inanimate objects. In several angles, these stories asked the same questions that put AI developers in a dilemma today: What does it mean to build something that thinks? Can human curiosity replicate emotions or even divinity?
Looking at the modern innovations like ChatGPT, Gemini, and Sora through the lens of this theory, these too were developed and trained to generate art, protect, replicate voices, and make decisions, echoing the same creative impulse the Greeks laced their gods with.
In conclusion, AI is technologically new, but not quite conceptually so. AI in the modern age works with silicon cores and models rather than 'Ichor' and divine metals, but their concept roots are olden. This historical resonation merely symbolizes the mortal desire to create tools with the ability to feel, perceive, and think embedded within them, replicating human intelligence and awareness.
Artificial intelligence has become an integral part of modern life, from being in one's phone to their workplaces to places as intimate as their kitchen, assisting its users with everyday tasks. The more prominently AI makes its mark on society, the more visible it becomes for claims and opinions of diverse some scholars, such as Adrienne Mayor, a research scholar of Stanford's Department of Classics and History of Science; Noel Sharkey, emeritus professor of AI and robotics at the University of Sheffield; Stephen Cave, the executive director of the Leverhulme Centre for the Future of Intelligence at the University of Cambridge; and Tom S. Mullaney, a professor of history at Stanford University , argue that AI may not be as novel as it seems to Mayor said, 'Our ability to imagine artificial intelligence goes back to ancient times.' The earliest themes of artificial intelligence, robots, and self-moving objects appear in the work of ancient Greek poets Hesiod and Homer, who were alive somewhere between 750 and 650 BC. Thereby, opening a door for a question to be raised: Are we sure that AI was conceptualized in the 1950s?The story of Hephaestus was first told in 700 BC by Hesiod. According to the story that is told, Talos was a giant bronze man built by Hephaestus, the Greek God of invention and metallurgy. He was a bronze automaton (self-operating robot) capable of decision-making, navigation, and defense. Aside from being an automaton, the reason why he is today suspected to be AI was his single vein of ichor. At the core of the automata, Talos, functioned on the 'divine fluid' that ran through him; this vein was said to be placed at his ankle, making only that one part of him vulnerable to mortal vein of ichor, based on advancements made today, could be understood as a 'central power' or a 'logic system,' a processor of sorts. The other reasons, according to scholars, were that he was said to have been killed by Medea, not by brute force but rather by 'hacking' him and convincing him to nick his ankle and drain the ichor from his followed set paths and functions like an autonomous drone; his sole purpose was to protect the island of Crete. He recognized threats and reacted to them with force, which is compared to an input-based action or basic AI story that everyone grew up with paints Pandora to be an innocent woman who unintentionally opened a box of evil. However, there were two versions of this story written in 'Hesiod's Theogony.' The one where Pandora was merely a young, curiosity-filled maiden was a version that was published later and made famous. The original version portrayed her as fake with evil intentions, created by Hephaestus and ordered by Zeus to be sent to Earth to punish the humans for discovering argues that Pandora could have been an AI agent sent by Zeus, for her sole mission was to infiltrate the human world and open her jar filled with pain and and Pandora were not the only automata that he created; he also made a set of automated servants, who were made of gold but looked like women. In Homer's works, Hephaestus was said to have implanted these artificial maidens with the 'knowledge of the gods.'These creations were not mere daydreams; they rather reflected human beings' fascination with replicating human intelligence, emotions, and knowledge via inanimate objects. In several angles, these stories asked the same questions that put AI developers in a dilemma today: What does it mean to build something that thinks? Can human curiosity replicate emotions or even divinity?Looking at the modern innovations like ChatGPT, Gemini, and Sora through the lens of this theory, these too were developed and trained to generate art, protect, replicate voices, and make decisions, echoing the same creative impulse the Greeks laced their gods conclusion, AI is technologically new, but not quite conceptually so. AI in the modern age works with silicon cores and models rather than 'Ichor' and divine metals, but their concept roots are olden. This historical resonation merely symbolizes the mortal desire to create tools with the ability to feel, perceive, and think embedded within them, replicating human intelligence and awareness.
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