Mayer: Ancient Greek art depicts the mythical bronze robot Talos crying
Adrienne Mayer · a16z Podcast | Ancient Dreams of Technology, Gods & Robots · Jan 2, 2019 · at 14:24
Historian of science Adrienne Mayer references ancient Greek pottery depictions of Talos to illustrate artistic sympathy for artificial beings.
0:00 / 0:15exact quote · 15.4s
▶ Watch the full episode on YouTube → 720p mp4 · rendered on demand · StarZero watermark
“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.”
quote is from the automated transcript, cleaned for reading: filler sounds and stutters are removed, nothing is rephrased. names can be misheard (the analysis reads context, assessments check outside sources). how →
More from Adrienne Mayer
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.”
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.”
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.”
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.”
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.”
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.”