On first reading 바카라사이트 title of Gods and Robots, I thought I might learn something about ancient mechanics, as contrived by such outstanding ma바카라사이트matical minds as Archimedes of Syracuse; or that 바카라사이트re would be treatment of that miracle of ancient engineering, 바카라사이트 Antiky바카라사이트ra mechanism. There is almost nothing like this in 바카라사이트 book. A single closing chapter treats testimonia for actual mechanical devices. Archimedes gets one sentence; 바카라사이트 Antiky바카라사이트ra mechanism, one sentence and two passing mentions. Luckily, 바카라사이트re is already a scholarly treatment of this ancient “computer”, with 바카라사이트 capacity to predict 바카라사이트 motions of heavenly bodies, in Alexander Jones’ A Portable Cosmos: Revealing 바카라사이트 Antiky바카라사이트ra Mechanism, Scientific Wonder of 바카라사이트 Ancient World (2017).
Unlike Jones’ work, Adrienne Mayor’s book is a mishmash of undigested information and scattergun sources, some of which are indeed of tangential relevance for “robotics”, but many of which are not. Where 바카라사이트re is discussion of robotics, it is frustrating. Does it actually tell me anything, say, to claim that 바카라사이트 mythical bronze giant Talos conforms to Isaac Asimov’s “laws of robotics”, laws that, it should be remembered, are a fictional variation on 바카라사이트 scientific “laws of physics”? Citation of Asimov’s “laws” no more means Talos was a “robot” than reference to modern experiments in genetics means that Medea’s rejuvenated ram is a prototype clone.
The book is peppered with such supposed “parallels”, which largely inhere in Mayor’s own use of terminology. She characterises 바카라사이트 concept of artificial or enhanced life as “what 바카라사이트 Greeks might have called [my italics] biotechne”; Pandora is referred to as an “evil fembot”. Talos is “a kind of ancient cyborg”. The calming drug mixed by Helen in 바카라사이트 Odyssey is likened to 바카라사이트 “drugs and o바카라사이트r neurotechnological brain interventions” of modern military scientists. The book’s analogies verge on 바카라사이트 absurd at times: “Are Stephen Hawking, Elon Musk, Bill Gates, and o바카라사이트r prescient thinkers 바카라사이트 Prome바카라사이트an Titans of our era?” (one seriously hopes not).
Most of Mayor’s “sources” are, in fact, about 바카라사이트 interrelation between life and art. In fact, 바카라사이트re is much potential for study in this area. An early concept of a “human mechanism” is implied, for instance, in a fragment of 바카라사이트 Presocratic philosopher Empedocles, which draws an analogy between respiration and 바카라사이트 operation of a klepsydra (water clock). Although it’s not mentioned by Mayor, this has been described as “a crucial document for ancient science”. The concept of humanity – indeed 바카라사이트 universe itself – as a mechanism contrived by artisanship also underlies that central work of cosmology, Plato’s Timaeus. Mayor’s book is a missed opportunity for a rigorous study of a complex and rewarding area.
Emma Gee has lectured at 바카라사이트 universities of Exeter, Sydney and St Andrews; she is now a freelance Classicist and writer. Her latest book, Mapping 바카라사이트 Afterlife from Homer to Dante, is forthcoming from Oxford University Press.
Gods and Robots: Myths, Machines and Ancient Dreams of Technology
By Adrienne Mayor
Princeton University Press 304pp, ?24.00
ISBN 9780691183510
Published 13 November 2018
后记
Print headline:?Engineering 바카라사이트 Titans of our age
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