Adrienne Mayer

Historian of Science & Author · 1 appearance on the record.

computed by AI from the episodes · how this works → · full disclaimer →

Adrienne Mayor is a historian of science and author. She wrote "Gods & Robots: Myths, Machines, and Ancient Dreams of Technology," which examines ancient Greek and Roman concepts of robotics and artificial intelligence.

14statements → 9claims → 6claims resolved → 33%fully supported → 4/5average certainty → 1.64/5average debate potential →

2 supported 4 partly supported 0 contradicted 3 not checkable as stated how the 9 claims stand · each chip opens the sources

9 assertions · 5 insights · every statement was checked. The predictions and assertions are the 9 claims: statements the public record can support or contradict. 6 are resolved, and 3 name no date, number or outcome precise enough to check. Everything else (opinions, insights, what ifs, disclosures) can never be settled by the record, so it carries no assessment.

The record, in short

What the tape says about how Adrienne argues and how the claims held up. Everything they said, and everything said about them, is in the tabs below.

Their most notable supported claim

Assertion Supported
Aristotle theorized that automation could eliminate the need for slavery
“In one remarkable passage, Aristotle starts to muse on the old myths of Hephaestus, making these golden women to help him in his shop, and the traveling carts that Fed the gods and then returned, and a bank of bellows for his forge that actually could adjust t…”
Adrienne Mayer Jan 2, 2019 ▶ 24:20 a16z Podcast | Ancient Dreams of Technology, Gods & Robots

Expressed certainty vs assessment result

none yet certainty 1
none yet certainty 2
none yet certainty 3
70% certainty 4
50% certainty 5

weighted support: a fully supported claim counts one, a partly supported claim counts half. Each filled bar is clickable and opens exactly those claims; "none yet" means nothing said at that certainty level has resolved yet

How they sound: speaking style how? →

196 words/min while actually speaking · 2.1 um and uh per 1k words

No argument clarity score for Adrienne Mayer: no usable question→answer exchanges on raw tape (a fair score needs 8+). We do not score a sample that small. Roundtable and news formats yield far fewer direct exchanges than interviews.

Measured by listening to 4,361 words across 1 episode, but every recording we have of Adrienne Mayer is the aired feed, and an editor cleaned that audio before release. Some of the hesitation was cut before we ever heard it, so read these as floors: the true rates are at least this high. These are measurements of speaking style, not scores. How it's measured →

Everything Adrienne Mayer said on the a16z Podcast that made the record, most notable first. Filter by type, assessment or year in the ledger →

Assertion Not checkable as stated
Mayer: Ancient myths and legends contain embedded scientific and natural knowledge
“There's a lot of natural knowledge, and even scientific folk knowledge, if you will, embedded in mythology, and all of my projects have been investigations into finding what's real in myths and legends and antiquity.”
Adrienne Mayer Jan 2, 2019 ▶ 1:40 a16z Podcast | Ancient Dreams of Technology, Gods & Robots
Insight
Mayer: Ancient mythology was humanity's first science fiction
“You could call ancient mythology cultural dreams or ancient thought experiments. They're basically the very first science fictions before science.”
Adrienne Mayer Jan 2, 2019 ▶ 2:39 a16z Podcast | Ancient Dreams of Technology, Gods & Robots
Insight
Mayer: Biological reproduction versus fabrication defines human and artificial distinction
“That is a critical distinction in antiquity and now, if something is manufactured or fabricated and not reproduced biologically. That is the dividing line between real and natural, human and non-human beings. Animate and inanimate.”
Adrienne Mayer Jan 2, 2019 ▶ 3:07 a16z Podcast | Ancient Dreams of Technology, Gods & Robots
Insight
Mayer: Medea from Greek mythology was history's first hacker
“By thinking about the programming and the systems of these inventions of the god Hephaestus, and she's able to destroy them by using their technology, turning their technology against them, so you could call her the first hacker.”
Adrienne Mayer Jan 2, 2019 ▶ 17:24 a16z Podcast | Ancient Dreams of Technology, Gods & Robots
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Mayer: Homer's golden servants are Western literature's first AI entities
“So essentially they are the first AI entities in Western literature, and it was Homer who describes these.”
Adrienne Mayer Jan 2, 2019 ▶ 19:24 a16z Podcast | Ancient Dreams of Technology, Gods & Robots
Insight
Mayer: Tech Developers Favor Epimethean Short-Term Gains Over AI Foresight
“Basically, what's really important today is whether one is going to be a Promethean or an Epimethean. When considering AI and advances in technology, foresight is really important, but we tend to be more like Epimetheus and going for the short-term gates.”
Adrienne Mayer Jan 2, 2019 ▶ 23:24 a16z Podcast | Ancient Dreams of Technology, Gods & Robots
Assertion Supported
Aristotle theorized that automation could eliminate the need for slavery
“In one remarkable passage, Aristotle starts to muse on the old myths of Hephaestus, making these golden women to help him in his shop, and the traveling carts that Fed the gods and then returned, and a bank of bellows for his forge that actually could adjust t…”
Adrienne Mayer Jan 2, 2019 ▶ 24:20 a16z Podcast | Ancient Dreams of Technology, Gods & Robots
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Ancient tyrants sought automatons specifically to amplify their power
“In both myth and historical times in antiquity, it's tyrants, autocrats, who are really interested in deploying Automatons. It's a way to amplify your power”
Adrienne Mayer Jan 2, 2019 ▶ 25:53 a16z Podcast | Ancient Dreams of Technology, Gods & Robots
Insight
Mayer: Ancient historical records show only a fraction of real inventions
“We have only a small fraction of what was written down in classical antiquity, so what we have just shows the tip of the iceberg of real inventions.”
Adrienne Mayer Jan 2, 2019 ▶ 29:35 a16z Podcast | Ancient Dreams of Technology, Gods & Robots
Assertion Partly supported
'Biotechnology' derives from the ancient Greek concept of 'life through craft'
“Made by a process that the Greeks would call biotechnē, which means life through craft, and it is the root of our word biotechnology.”
Adrienne Mayer Jan 2, 2019 ▶ 7:30 a16z Podcast | Ancient Dreams of Technology, Gods & Robots
Assertion Partly supported
Mayer: Greek vase paintings from 450 B.C. show tools used on Talos
“There are at least two ancient vase paintings from about four 50 B.C. That show Jason and Medea using a tool To release that bolt on his ankle.”
Adrienne Mayer Jan 2, 2019 ▶ 12:00 a16z Podcast | Ancient Dreams of Technology, Gods & Robots
Assertion Partly supported
Mayer: Ancient Greek art depicts the mythical bronze robot Talos crying
“There are some ancient vase paintings that show Talos being destroyed, and he's falling backwards, and you can see the rivets and the seams of this bronze giant, and yet there is a tear Falling from his eye.”
Adrienne Mayer Jan 2, 2019 ▶ 14:24 a16z Podcast | Ancient Dreams of Technology, Gods & Robots
Assertion Partly supported
Mayer: DARPA developed an AI soldier exoskeleton named TALOS
“DARPA is currently working on an automated exoskeleton that will have AI capabilities for soldiers, and they deliberately came up with the acronym TALOS.”
Adrienne Mayer Jan 2, 2019 ▶ 28:16 a16z Podcast | Ancient Dreams of Technology, Gods & Robots
Assertion Supported
The world's first flying automaton was a 4th-century BC mechanical dove
“The very first automaton that could fly was created by a friend of Plato named Architas. He was just a polymath, a brilliant inventor, engineer, and a general, and he created an artificial bird In the shape of a dove that could fly several yards.”
Adrienne Mayer Jan 2, 2019 ▶ 28:53 a16z Podcast | Ancient Dreams of Technology, Gods & Robots

Appearances (1)

EpisodeDateSpeaking time
a16z Podcast | Ancient Dreams of Technology, Gods & Robots Jan 2, 2019 29m
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