First published in 1966, in Human Robots in Myth and Science, the author traces the idea of the robot from antiquity until the present day (1960s) and sketches the lines of its likely development in the future. Modern science, like science fiction, is deeply concerned with the idea of a robot or self-regulating artifact which operates without human aid. Ultra rapid computers, pilotless planes, and automated factories straight away come to mind, but there are numberless other automatic devices.
As John Cohen probes this exciting theme it becomes increasingly clear that the notion of a robot has had far reaching repercussions in the history of science, philosophy and literature and in the growth of industry. In his analysis of the motives of robot makers throughout the ages, the author distinguishes the impulse which challenges the gods themselves from the merely utilitarian urge. There is a vast difference between the age-old quest for technical skill and the desire to wrest from the gods the secret of making a man. The topic is treated historically, beginning with Biblical, Egyptian, Greek and other antique robots and their significance and followed by a description of the 'man-made men' of medieval science, alchemy and fiction. The theory of robots come into its own in the seventeenth century and its application, in craftsmanship in industry, in the eighteenth century. It is only in the recent past however, that the world of robots has begun to flourish in an ever-growing scale. In the age of AI, this historical reference work is a must read for scholars and researchers of history, philosophy and literature.
