Review by Choice Review
The last few decades have seen rapid developments in areas of artificial intelligence, robotics, and even modifications to living organisms. With Gods and Robots, Mayor (classics and the history of science, Stanford) recaptures the history of human efforts in these areas in ancient times. She focuses mainly on the ancient Greek and Roman civilizations, where ideas of artificially created life were explored in myths. The big idea in conceptualizing and making such forms was that they were "made, not born." Mayor mines Greek mythology extensively for ideas of humanoid structures, such as the legendary bronze automaton Talos. Bronze-cast automata were common from ancient Greece through the Middle Ages. Mayor also explores contemporary perceptions of concepts like artificial life and the quest for immortality or eternal youth. As she notes, "the complex network of myths about Prometheus, Jason and the Argonauts, Medea, Daedalus, Hephaesius, Talos, and Pandora--all raised basic questions about the boundaries between biological and manufactured beings" (p. 213). This is a work of great erudition enhanced by many illustrations and color plates. Summing Up: Recommended. All readers. --Nanjundiah Sadanand, Central Connecticut State University
Copyright American Library Association, used with permission.
Review by Publisher's Weekly Review
The Greeks thought of everything, including sci-fi tropes such as androids and artificial intelligence, according to this lively study of mythology and technology. Stanford classicist Mayor (The Amazons) surveys myths from ancient Greece (with excursions to India and China) about bio-techne, life crafted by artifice. She finds a trove of them, including those of the bronze warrior-robot Talos, who patrolled Crete, hurling boulders at ships and roasting soldiers alive; statues by the legendary engineer Daedalus, so lifelike that they had to be tethered to stay put; and marvels by the blacksmith god Hephaestus, including automated rolling tripods that served Olympian feasts and talking robot servants to help at his forge. Taking a more organic approach, the witch Medea, after defeating Talos with sweet talk and trickery, invented herbal drugs to reverse aging. Mayor also looks at real-life automata in ancient Alexandria-mechanical beasts and people that moved, vocalized, and dispensed milk to bemused onlookers. Drawing somewhat obvious parallels with modern gadgetry-self-piloting ships in The Odyssey remind her of GPS systems-and latter-day sci-fi, from Frankenstein to Robocop, Mayor ponders questions of what life is, how robots think, and whether people can love a sculpture. The answers aren't especially deep, but Mayor's exploration of the endless inventiveness of the Greek imagination makes for an engrossing read. Photos. Agent: Sandra Dijkstra, Sandra Dijkstra Literary Agency. (Nov.) © Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.
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Review by Kirkus Book Review
A fascinating unpacking of ancient myths that feature robots and other lifelike beings, some of which bear an eerie resemblance to modern technology.More than 2,000 years ago, Greek thinkers were already envisioning the spectacular potential of being "made, not born." As Mayor (The Amazons:Lives and Legends of Warrior Women Across the Ancient World, 2014, etc.), a research scholar in classics and the history of science at Stanford, writes, during ancient times, "wefind a remarkable set of concepts and ideas that arose in mythology, stories that envisioned ways of imitating, augmenting, and surpassing natural life by means that might be termed bio-techne, life through craft'ancient versions of what we now call biotechnology." The bronze giant Talos, protector of Crete, appears in numerous poems and artworks, some dating to 500 B.C.E.; Jason, of the Argonauts, is depicted as battling a phalanx of robotlike soldiers sprung from the earth and programmed to kill. Of course, these episodes are fiction, but they reveal the sophistication of the ancients' imagined automata. In her meticulous research, the author discovers that the Greeks were hardly alone in conceiving mechanistic warriors, servants, or evil human replicas. Surviving myths from Rome, India, and China also explore ideas of artificial life and intelligence. In her insightful analyses of these tales, Mayor is approachable and engaging, and she infuses many familiar stories with new energy in the context of technology. She adroitly explores the ethical aspects of artificial life, addressing big questions about sentience and agency through the lens of ancient ideas. She also makes a convincing argument that these imagined machines anticipated advances that are considered cutting-edge today. Ultimately, she leaves readers in awe of these thinkers who dreamed of "androids" long before it was conceivable to build them.A collection of wondrous tales that present ancient myths as the proto-science fiction stories they are. Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
