From top left to bottom right: Talos, an early pioneer of robots, Pandora, the "evil female robot with artificial intelligence", and the unmanned spacecraft in Odyssey.
The ancient Greeks were known for laying the foundations of Western civilization, but, according to a new book, the ancient Greeks had another talent: technology that predicted the future.
This is the famous assertion of Dr. Adrienne Mayor, a historian at Stanford University in the United States. In her book Gods and Robots, she argues that Greek mythology foreshadows artificial intelligence, robotics, driverless cars, and other modern technologies.
According to the Times, Dr. Mayor's argument revolves around the god of fire in ancient Greek mythology, the god of forging and craftsmanship, and the patron saint of blacksmiths, Hephaestus.
One of Hephaestus' famous works was the mechanical giant Talos made of bronze, which Mayor described as a "bronze killing robot." The robot currently manufactured by Boston Dynamics in the United States is based on Talos.
Another of Hephaestus' works is Pandora, a "replicant" and "evil AI female robot." According to Mayor, Pandora was designed to "unleash evil" on the world.
Pandora wasn't the only "artificial intelligence" Hephaestus had built, as he had also built mechanical golden maidens to help him with his work.
Taros in the movie Prince Jason 's Battle Demon ( aka Jason and The Hornes ).
These works are not the only future technological prophecies of ancient Greece. Dr. Mayor said Homer's epic predicted the arrival of driverless cars and vehicles. In the Odyssey, Odysseus returns to Ithaca in the unmanned ship of Fearkes, while in the Iliad, Homer writes about an automatic wheeled tripod that transports the gods' delicacies.
Dr. Mayor said it was impossible for the ancient Greeks to paint a technical picture of how modern AI works. But she doesn't think that won't stop them from imagining these technologies on a more abstract level.
More importantly, she believes that today's tech companies can learn something important from the warnings of ancient Greek mythology. Just as Pandora, the "evil AI female robot," eventually unleashed evil on humans, today's AI would do the same if it wasn't understood and managed enough.
What do you think of Dr. Mayor's assertion? (Compiled by Yalan)
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