The Ledger
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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.”
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…”
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”
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.”
'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.”
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.”
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.”
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.”
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.”