User:HieronymusBot/sandbox
Contribution Description
[edit]I am editing the History of Artificial Intelligence page.
Specifically, I am editing the "Precursors" section of the page.
Restructuring: I subdivided the Precursors section into "Mythical, Fictional, and Speculative Precursors," and "Intellectual and Technological Precursors."
Expansion: I expanded the Myth/Fiction/Speculation substantially (>=500 words) by including brief synopses of accounts of the fabrication of artificial beings. I also added the Faust image.
I added all sources below to the page, except for 10, 14, 15, 16, 17. Those were there prior to my edits.
Precursors (Edited, Edits are Bolded)
[edit]Mythical, Fictional, and Speculative Precursors
[edit]Myth and Legend
[edit]In Greek Mythology, Talos was a giant constructed of bronze who acted as guardian for the island of Crete. He would throw boulders at the ships of invaders, and would complete 3 circuits around the islands perimeter daily.[1] According to pseudo-Apollodorus' Bibliotheke, Hephaestus forged Talos with the aid of a cyclops and presented the automaton as a gift to Minos.[2] In the Argonautica, Jason and the Argonauts defeated him by way of a single plug near his foot which, once removed, allowed the vital ichor to flow out from his body and left him inanimate.[3]
Pygmalion was a legendary king and sculptor of Greek Mythology, famously represented in Ovid’s Metamorphoses. In the 10th book of Ovid’s narrative poem, Pygmalion becomes disgusted with women when he witnesses the way in which the Propoetides prostitute themselves.[4] Despite this, he makes offerings at the temple of Venus asking the goddess to bring to him a woman just like a statue he carved and fell in love with. Indeed the statue, Galatea, came to life and by some accounts she and Pygmalion conceived a child.[5]
The Golem is an artificial being of Jewish Folklore, created from clay and-- depending on the source-- often given some sort of objective. The earliest written account regarding golem-making is found in the writings of Eleazar ben Judah of Worms circa 12-13th C.[6] During the Middle Ages, it was believed that the animation of a Golem could be achieved by insertion of a piece of paper with any of God’s names on it, into the mouth of the clay figure.[7] Unlike legendary automata like Brazen Heads, a Golem was unable to speak.[8]
Alchemical Means of Artificial Intelligence
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In Of the Nature of Things, written by the the Swiss-born alchemist, Paracelsus, he describes a procedure which he claims can fabricate an “artificial man.” By placing the “sperm of a man” in horse dung, and feeding it the “Arcanum of Mans blood” after 40 days, the concoction will become a living infant.[9] Predating Paracelsus was Jābir ibn Hayyān's take on the homunculus: Takwin[10] In Faust, The Second Part of the Tragedy by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, an alchemically fabricated Homunculus, destined to live forever in the flask in which he was made, endeavors to be born into a full human body. Upon the initiation of this transformation, however, the flask shatters and the Homunculus dies.[11]
Early-Modern Legendary Automata
[edit]These automata legendary during the early modern period were said to possess the magical ability to answer questions put to them. The late medieval alchemist and scholar Roger Bacon was purported to have fabricated one, having developed a legend of having been a wizard.[12] These legends were similar to the Norse myth of the Head of Mímir. According to legend, Mímir was known for his intellect and wisdom, and was beheaded in the Æsir-Vanir War. Odin is said to have “embalmed” the head with herbs and spoke incantations over it such that Mímir’s head remained able to speak wisdom to Odin. Odin then kept the head near him for counsel.[13]
Modern Fiction
[edit]By the 19th century, ideas about artificial men and thinking machines were developed in fiction, as in Mary Shelley's Frankenstein or Karel Čapek's R.U.R. (Rossum's Universal Robots)[14], and speculation, such as Samuel Butler's "Darwin among the Machines."[15]AI has continued to be an important element of science fiction into the present. AI has become a regular topic of science fiction through the present.
Theoretical and Technological Precursors
[edit]Automata
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Formal reasoning
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Computer science
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References
[edit]- ^ The Talos episode in Argonautica 4
- ^ Bibliotheke 1.9.26
- ^ Rhodios, Apollonios. (2007). The Argonautika : Expanded Edition. University of California Press. p. 355. ISBN 978-0-520-93439-9. OCLC 811491744.
- ^ Morford, Mark (2007). Classical mythology. Oxford. p. 184. ISBN 978-0-19-085164-4. OCLC 1102437035.
{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link) - ^ Pseudo-Apollodorus, Bibliotheke, iii.14.3
- ^ Kressel, Matthew (2015-10-01). "36 Days of Judaic Myth: Day 24, The Golem of Prague". Matthew Kressel. Retrieved 2020-03-15.
- ^ "GOLEM - JewishEncyclopedia.com". www.jewishencyclopedia.com. Retrieved 2020-03-15.
- ^ "Sanhedrin 65b". www.sefaria.org. Retrieved 2020-03-15.
- ^ The alchemy reader : from Hermes Trismegistus to Isaac Newton. Linden, Stanton J., 1935-. New York: Cambridge University Press. 2003. pp. Ch. 18. ISBN 0-521-79234-7. OCLC 51210362.
{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: others (link) - ^ O'Connor, Kathleen Malone (1994-01-01). "The alchemical creation of life (takwin) and other concepts of Genesis in medieval Islam". Dissertations available from ProQuest: 1–435.
- ^ Goethe, Johann Wolfgang von (1890). Faust; a tragedy. Translated, in the original metres ... by Bayard Taylor. Authorised ed., published by special arrangement with Mrs. Bayard Taylor. With a biographical introd. Robarts - University of Toronto. London Ward, Lock.
- ^ Butler, E. M. (Eliza Marian) (1948). The myth of the magus. London: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 0-521-22564-7. OCLC 5063114.
- ^ Hollander, Lee M. Heimskringla; history of the kings of Norway. Austin,: Published for the American-Scandinavian Foundation by the University of Texas Press. ISBN 0-292-73061-6. OCLC 638953.
{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: extra punctuation (link) - ^ McCorduck, Pamela (2004), Machines Who Think (2nd ed.), pp. 17-25 Natick, MA: A. K. Peters, Ltd., ISBN 978-1-56881-205-2, OCLC 52197627
- ^ Butler, Samuel (13 June 1863), "Darwin Among the Machines", The Press, Christchurch, New Zealand, retrieved 10 October 2008
Precursors (Unedited, taken from the original page.)
[edit]AI in myth, fiction and speculation
[edit]Mechanical men and artificial beings appear in Greek myths, such as the golden robots of Hephaestus and Pygmalion's Galatea.[1] In the Middle Ages, there were rumors of secret mystical or alchemical means of placing mind into matter, such as Jābir ibn Hayyān's Takwin, Paracelsus' homunculus and Rabbi Judah Loew's Golem.[2] By the 19th century, ideas about artificial men and thinking machines were developed in fiction, as in Mary Shelley's Frankenstein or Karel Čapek's R.U.R. (Rossum's Universal Robots),[3] and speculation, such as Samuel Butler's "Darwin among the Machines."[4] AI has continued to be an important element of science fiction into the present.
Automata
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Formal reasoning
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Computer science
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- ^ McCorduck 2004, p. 5; Russell & Norvig 2003, p. 939
- ^ McCorduck 2004, pp. 15–16; Buchanan 2005, p. 50 (Judah Loew's Golem); McCorduck 2004, pp. 13–14 (Paracelsus); O'Connor 1994 (Geber's Takwin)
- ^ McCorduck 2004, pp. 17–25.
- ^ Butler 1863.