Golems, Talos, Homunculi: The Oldest Dream of Making Minds
Artificial intelligence feels like the newest thing in the world. The dream behind it might be one of the oldest stories we tell. Nearly three thousand years ago, Homer described the workshop of Hephaestus, the smith god. Assisting him were servants he had forged out of gold in the shape of young women, and the poet is oddly specific about them. They had understanding in their hearts, they could speak, and they steadied their limping maker as he walked. The first androids in Western literature appear in its first great poem, and they appear as helpers. ...