The first robot to walk the earth was a bronze giant called Talos. This wondrous machine was created not by MIT Robotics Lab, but by Hephaestus, the Greek god of invention. More than 2,500 years ago, long before medieval automata, and centuries before technology made self-moving devices possible, Greek mythology was exploring ideas about creating artificial life--and grappling with still-unresolved ethical concerns aboutbiotechne, "life through craft." In this compelling, richly illustrated book, Adrienne Mayor tells the fascinating story of how ancient Greek, Roman, Indian, and Chinese myths envisioned artificial life, automata, self-moving devices, and human enhancements--and how these visions relate to and reflect the ancient invention of real animated machines.

As early as Homer, Greeks were imagining robotic servants, animated statues, and even ancient versions of Artificial Intelligence, while in Indian legend, Buddha's precious relics were defended by robot warriors copied from Greco-Roman designs for real automata. Mythic automata appear in tales about Jason and the Argonauts, Medea, Daedalus, Prometheus, and Pandora, and many of these machines are described as being built with the same materials and methods that human artisans used to make tools and statues. And, indeed, many sophisticated animated devices were actually built in antiquity, reaching a climax with the creation of a host of automata in the ancient city of learning, Alexandria, the original Silicon Valley.

A groundbreaking account of the earliest expressions of the timeless impulse to create artificial life,Gods and Robotsreveals how some of today's most advanced innovations in robotics and AI were anticipated in ancient myth--and how science has always been driven by imagination.

第一个在地球上行走的机器人是一个叫塔洛斯的青铜巨人。这个奇妙的机器不是由麻省理工学院机器人实验室创造的，而是由希腊发明之神赫菲斯托斯创造的。2500多年前，早在中世纪的自动装置之前，在技术使自我移动装置成为可能的几个世纪之前，希腊神话就在探索关于创造人工生命的想法--并努力解决关于生物技术（biotechne）的仍然未解决的伦理问题，"通过工艺创造生命"。在这本引人入胜、图文并茂的书中，Adrienne Mayor讲述了古希腊、罗马、印度和中国的神话是如何设想人工生命、自动装置、自我移动装置和人类强化的迷人故事--以及这些设想如何与古代发明的真实动画机器相联系并反映出来。

早在荷马时代，希腊人就在想象机器人仆人、动画雕像，甚至是古代版本的人工智能，而在印度的传说中，佛祖的珍贵遗物由机器人战士保卫，这些机器人战士是由希腊罗马的真实自动装置设计复制的。神话中的自动装置出现在关于杰森和阿尔戈纳人、美狄亚、戴德鲁斯、普罗米修斯和潘多拉的故事中，其中许多机器被描述为用人类工匠用于制造工具和雕像的相同材料和方法制造的。事实上，许多复杂的动画设备在古代确实被制造出来了，随着古代学习之城亚历山大（Alexandria）--最初的硅谷--创造出大量的自动装置而达到了高潮。

神与机器人》对创造人工生命的永恒冲动的最早表达进行了突破性的阐述，揭示了今天机器人和人工智能方面最先进的一些创新是如何在古代神话中被预见到的--以及科学如何一直被想象力所驱动。