The Greeks were obsessed with the question of what it really means to be human. Over and over again, their legends explored the prospects and risks of immortality, the development of human abilities, the duplication of a living being. In the favorite myths about Hercules, Jason and the Argonauts, about the sorceress Medea and the engineer Daedalus, about the god-inventor Hephaestus and the tragically curious Pandora, the main question was raised about the border between man and machine. Today, biotechnological developments and advances in artificial intelligence are again giving relevance to the question of the consequences of combining biological and technological. We can say that this discourse was launched by the ancient Greeks.
Medea, a mythical sorceress whose name comes from the verb "to invent", possessed many secret arts. And among them is the secret of rejuvenation. Medea, in order to demonstrate her strength, appeared before Jason and the Argonauts in the form of an old, crooked old woman, only to then turn into a beautiful young princess. Iason fell under the spell and fell in love with her. He asked Medea to resurrect youthful strength in his aged father, Esona. Medea pumped all the blood out of the old man's veins and replaced it with the juices of medicinal herbs.
Old Eson, suddenly energetic and full of health, amazed everyone, including the daughters of the aged Pelias. They asked Medea to reveal a secret recipe to breathe life into her father. But they did not know that Pelius was Medea's longtime enemy. The witch cheated by letting them watch her cast. While repeating spells, she put on a great show by mixing pharmaka (medicines) in a special "rejuvenation cauldron." Then Medea brought out the old ram, cut his throat and threw it into a huge cauldron. Abracadabra: miraculously, a frisky young lamb appeared from there! The trusting daughters returned home and tried to repeat the trick with their old father, repeating magic words by cutting his throat and shoving him in boiling water.
Naturally, they killed Pelias. In the tale of Medea, hope and fear are combined, an eternal pair of reactions to scientific experiments on life itself.
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The earliest depiction of Medea appeared on a Greek vase around 500 BC. e., however, oral traditions existed for many centuries before. When Medea mixes the contents of the cauldron, a lamb appears from it. Medea's ram and lamb are the predecessors of Dolly, the first sheep created in a genetically engineered cloning experiment in 1997.
Replication of life revives archaic fears in us. The doppelganger effect challenges the desire of each individual to be unique, irreplaceable.
Deeply imbued with metaphysical understanding and predictions about the future manipulation of man's nature, these ancient traditions seem amazing in our time. If you look at what the Greeks called bio-techne (bios = life, techne = created by the art of science) as a scientific inquiry, the "science fiction" of the ancient world takes on an eerie modern meaning. Medea and other bio-techne myths have inspired haunting, dramatic performances and memorable illustrations in classic vase paintings and sculptures.
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Meanwhile, around 400 BC. e. Archytas, a friend of Plato, made a splash with his steam-powered mechanical bird. Hellenic engineer Heron of Alexandria invented hundreds of automated machines controlled by hydraulics and pneumatics. Other craftsmen created moving figures that made sounds, opened doors, poured wine, and even attacked people. It is obvious that the ancient Greeks were attracted to bio-techne.
Behind these technological wonders lies the search for eternal life. The Greeks believed that Chronos measured female and male lives. Time was divided into past, present and future. Freedom from time promised eternal life, but raised troubling questions. Go with the flow of endless time - and then what happens to the memories? What will happen to love? Can beauty exist without death and old age? Are sacrifice and heroism possible without death? The great heroes from myths died physically, remaining in memory after death, even if they became Homer's "chirping ghosts" in the underworld. Myths send an existential message: death is inevitable, and in fact the prospects for human dignity, independence, and heroism depend on mortality.
Indeed, after the gods give them a choice, Achilles and other heroes reject a life of comfort and laziness, eternal life. In myths, great heroes and heroines resolutely choose a short, memorable life full of honor, risk and courage. "If our life is short, then let it be filled with glory!" An artificial immortal existence may be attractive, but will it be great and noble?
The myths of the bravest heroes dramatize the disadvantages of immortality. When the goddess Thetis plunges her young son Achilles into the magical river Styx to make him invulnerable, she holds him by the heel. On the battlefield at Troy, for all his prowess, the best Greek champion dies not in a fair fight, face to face, as he hoped, but because of a poisoned arrow that pierced Achilles' heel. Such things seem insignificant, but such unforeseen vulnerabilities are inherent in advanced bio-tech.
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The desire to transcend death is as old as human consciousness itself. In the mythological space, immortality becomes a dilemma for both gods and humans. The myth of Eos and Typhon raises the problem of preventing all contingencies and potential complications. Eos was an immortal goddess who fell in love with the mortal Typhon. The gods granted Eos' request that her beloved live forever. But she forgot to ask for eternal youth for her chosen one. “When the hideous old age crushed Typhon, Eos despaired,” the myth says. Sadly, she imprisoned her beloved in a dungeon behind golden doors. "There, without the strength to move the once pliable limbs, Typhon plunges into eternity." In some versions, Typhon is exhausted by the cicadas, whose monotonous singing is an endless plea for death.
The fate of Typhon casts a shadow on the prospect of extending human life. Recognizing the Typhon dilemma inherent in curbing aging indefinitely, biomedical gerontologist Aubrey de Gray founded the SENS Research Foundation (Strategies for the Engineering of Slight Aging) in 2009. SENS hopes to find a way to avoid cell aging as death itself is farther and farther away.
In the deepest ancient myths, the question is posed: does immortality liberate one from suffering and grief? In the epic of Gilgamesh, for example, the eponymous hero of the Mesopotamian poem longs for immortality. But if Gilgamesh had gained eternal life, he would have spent it in eternal grief for his friend Enkidu.
Or take a look at the fate of the wise centaur Chiron, mentor and friend of Hercules and Apollo. Hercules accidentally hit Chiron with an arrow poisoned by the Hydra poison. The terrible wound would never heal. Writhing from unbearable pain, Chiron, for the sake of getting rid of her, asked the gods for a blessed death in exchange for his immortality. Prometheus, the titan who revealed the divine secret of fire to people, turned out to be another immortal who suffered from endless pain. Zeus chained Prometheus to a rock and sent a huge eagle to peck at his liver every day. The titan's liver grew back overnight, and the eagle pecked it clean again. Every now and again. Infinitely. Immortality.
The regeneration nightmare is also revealed in the myth of the multi-headed Hydra. Trying to kill the monster, Hercules cut off each of its heads, after which two new ones grew in its place. Finally he burned each neck with a torch, but the central head of the Hydra was immortal and impossible to destroy. Hercules buried his invulnerable head in the ground and rolled a huge boulder to scare people away from there. And even from the fangs of the Hydra buried deep underground, deadly poison continued to ooze. This time, immortality was literally poisoned.
Another example: Jason and the Argonauts were threatened by a legion of hideous replicants. At the tip of Medea's evil father, they raised an army of dragon teeth, plowing the field with the help of fire-breathing mechanical bulls, which Daedalus invented (author's mistake: this was not a hint, but an order; bulls were donated by Hephaestus - approx. New). He planted the dragon's teeth in the soil. "Seeds" sprouted, and from the earth emerged invincible in their multitude, fully armed skeletal warriors. But the magical harvest lacked one key quality: they cannot be ordered. They just attack, incessantly. Medea's father wanted the army to destroy the Argonauts. Gloomy "robots" were advancing on Iason and his men. Desperate to stop the growing uncontrollable crowd, Jason began throwing stones into the midst of the crowd. The skeletons were "programmed" to kill the nearest enemythus they killed each other. Some scholars believe that the ancient tale predates Homer. This story is an ominous omen of the daunting task of managing cyber soldiers.
Another series of myths dedicated to the Cretan genius Daedalus is associated with the wonders of mechanics. It was he who made the drone-like eagle, which regularly pounced on the liver of Prometheus. His most famous experiment was flying on wings and became a cliché of tragic arrogance. Admiring the magic of flight, Daedalus' son Icarus flew too high. The heat of the sun melted the wax, which held together the bronze "feathers", the wings crumbled and Icarus crashed to death. Like other myths about immortality and the enhancement of human ability, history points to the impossibility of predicting simple but potentially deadly technological moments.
According to Greek legends, Daedalus was the first mortal to create "living statues". They were moving bronze sculptures that seemed to be truly endowed with life: they rolled their eyes, sweated, cried, bled, talked and moved their limbs. In his workshop, a biomimetic cow was created from wood and skins, so realistic that she deceived the bull who mated with her: thereby Daedalus satisfied the perverted passion of Queen Pasiphae. The result was the unification of man, machine and animal in the Minotaur, a hideous creature with a human body and a bull's head. He was destined to become a cannibal, imprisoned in the Labyrinth (also a project of Daedalus), until one day he was killed by the hero Theseus. Again, the ancient bio-techne fused human and machine together - and spawned a monster.
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Hephaestus, the god of invention and technology, also built robots that obeyed commands and moved independently. It was this heavenly blacksmith who in antiquity had the largest bio-tech resume. Hephaestus created two mechanical dogs of gold and silver to guard the royal palace. His four robotic horses pulled the chariot, "kicking up dust with their brass hooves, whinnying." After the gods resurrected the chopped-up hero Pelope, Hephaestus replaced his shoulder blade with an ivory insert.
Hephaestus developed several "self-propelled" tripods on wheels that responded to commands to bring food and wine. This led him to create a group of life-size gold maids to carry out his orders. The automated servants were "like real young girls: with perception and intelligence, strength and even voice, endowed with all the knowledge of immortals." What Silicon Valley AI enthusiast can surpass this ambition?
The wonders of Hephaestus were imagined by an ancient society that is not usually considered technologically advanced. Bio-tech creatures have fascinated a culture that existed for millennia before the advent of robots, which can win in complex games, conduct conversations, analyze a lot of information and determine the desires of people. But whose wishes will the robots with artificial intelligence fulfill? Who will they learn from?
Microsoft's teenage chatbot with the female name Tay is an instructive example of our times. In March 2016, Tay started working on Twitter. Intricately programmed to mimic the neural networks of the human brain, Thay had to learn from "friends" - people. She was expected to be able to conduct intricate conversations without filters and without supervising her behavior. In just a few hours, malevolent Twitter followers turned Tay into an internet troll with racist and sexist taunts. Less than 12 hours later, the creators turned it off. Thay's highly destructible learning system has dampened optimism about self-learning AIs and intelligent robots.
Ancient historians Polybius and Plutarch described a deliberately violent female robot. She was created for Nabis, the last king of Sparta, in the image of his evil wife Apega. The cruel tyrant Nabis came to power in 207 BC. e. and during his reign he extorted large sums of money from wealthy subjects. Greek sculptors were celebrated for their extraordinarily realistic portrait statues with natural tones, human hair and glass eyes. Nabis dressed this very realistic mannequin in his wife's outfits, which covered his chest, studded with nails. Wealthy citizens were first given plenty of wine to drink, after which, if they refused to pay, they were introduced to Apega, which was more convincing. When the drunken guests rose to greet the "queen," King Nabis controlled the levers hidden on the robot's back. She raised her arms and grabbed the man, tightening her hug and pinning him to her nailed chest. For this and other atrocities, Nabis was executed in 192 BC. e. Centuries later, medieval torturers invented a primitive version of this sophisticated Spartan "iron maiden".
The epic of Jason and the Argonauts, The Argonauts, also features a deadly robot. Talos is one of Hephaestus' most memorable creations. He was a giant bronze warrior, programmed to guard the island of Crete, hurling boulders at approaching ships. He also had another combat ability that mimics a human trait. As a robot Apega, Talos could perform a chilling distortion of the universal sign of warmth - a hug. Able to heat his bronze body, Talos hugged the victim, roasting her alive. How did Jason and the Argonauts escape this bionic monster?
Using bio-techne in response to bio-techne. Medea knew that Hephaestus created Talos with a single artery through which ichor, the mysterious life-giving fluid of the gods, circulated between the neck and ankle. One bronze nail sealed Talos's "life system".
Medea convinced Talos that she could make him invulnerable by taking out a bronze nail. But when the nail was pulled out, the ichor flowed out of Talos like molten metal, and its "life" died out. Medea took advantage of the everlasting desire of imaginary replicants, from Talos to Frankinstein's monster to Blade Runner. We believe that human aspirations are hidden in them.
The culminating project of the Hephaestus laboratory was an android girl ordered by Zeus. Zeus wanted to punish people for accepting the heavenly secret of fire stolen by Prometheus. And their punishment, created by Hephaestus, was Pandora ("the all-eating one"). Every god has endowed her with a human trait. Pandora possessed beauty, charm, a talent for music, knowledge of healing and other sciences, intelligence, courage and, of course, an insatiable curiosity. Pandora is the AI agent of the gods. She appears as a lovely young girl and was sent to Earth with a sealed box containing another set of "gifts."
The friendly titan Prometheus warned people that Pandora's box should not be opened. Maybe Stephen Hawking, Elon Musk and Bill Gates are the Promethean titans of our time? They warned scientists that it is necessary to stop the reckless fascination with AI, because once launched, people will not be able to control it. Deep learning algorithms enable AI computers to extract sequences from massive amounts of data, extrapolate to new situations, and make decisions without human guidance. AI robots will inevitably begin to invent and ask questions themselves. Computers have already developed altruism and cunning on their own. Will the AI be curious to discover secret knowledge and behave according to its logic?
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Pandora's risk-taking, curious human nature pushed her to open the chest. Plague, grief, misfortune flew out of Pandora's box. In the simple version of the myth, the last thing that flew out of Pandora's box is hope. But in the more detailed and darker versions, instead of hope, the last thing in the chest was "anticipation of trouble." In this version, Pandora panicked and slammed the lid shut, trapping the foresight inside. Deprived of the ability to predict the future, humanity has received what we call "hope."
Since ancient times, philosophers have debated whether hope is the best or worst thing in Pandora's box. As long as human ingenuity, curiosity and audacity continue to explore the boundaries of biological life and death, people and machines, this question will be faced by each new generation. Our world is, of course, unprecedented in terms of technological capabilities. But the disturbing tug of war between scientific nightmares and grandiose dreams is eternal. The ancient Greeks knew that the most essential trait of humanity is the temptation to get out "outside of man."
Earlier this year, engineers at US weapons manufacturer Raytheon created three tiny, trainable robots. They were called by ancient names: Zeus, Athena and Hercules. With neural systems based on cockroaches and octopuses, little solar-powered robots have received three gifts: the ability to move, the attraction to darkness, and the ability to recharge in the sun. The robots quickly learned to mutate and soon realized that they either had to get out into the excruciating light to recharge or die. This seemingly mild learning conflict is comparable to “cognitive economics,” in which emotions help the brain allocate resources and strategize. Other AI experiments are teaching computers to discern how strangers show affection for each other.and how mortals respond to negative and positive emotions.
After Hawking warned that “AI could herald the end of the human race,” some scientists have proposed teaching robots about human values and morality by telling them stories. Fables, novels and other literature, even a database of Hollywood movie plots can act as a kind of "people guide" for the computer. One such system is called Scheherazade, after the heroine of The Thousand and One Nights, a legendary Persian philosopher-storyteller who has memorized a vast number of stories of disappeared civilizations. At the moment, the stories are simple, they show the computer how a kind, mentally healthy person behaves. In order to train robots to sympathetically interact with people and respond appropriately to their emotions, more complex plots will be added to the computer's repertoire. The idea isthat stories will gain value when AI reaches the human level of the mental skill of "portable learning", can reason symbolically with analogies, making decisions without prompting.
Computers can be modeled after the human brain, but the human mind does not work exactly like a computer. We learn that our cognitive abilities and rational thinking depend on emotions. Stories appeal to emotion, pathos. Stories live on as long as they evoke vague emotions, as long as they resonate with real dilemmas and are suitable for reflection. In the distant past, the Greeks told stories to understand humanity eager to transcend biological limits. The bio-techne myths are proof of the persistence of the discourse around what it means to be human. The insight and wisdom of myths help bring depth to our conversations about AI. Could some of these myths help AI better understand humanity's conflicting aspirations? Perhaps one day, AI subjects will comprehend the deepest desires and fears of mortals,depicted in ancient myths, and are aware of our intricate expectations of themselves. By learning that humans foresaw them and pondered some of the challenges that might come their way, AI subjects may better understand the challenges they confuse us with.
The emergence of a "culture" of AI robots no longer seems far-fetched. AI inventors and mentors are already building the logos, ethos and pathos of this culture. As humans are improved through technology and become more and more like machines, something that resembles humanity awakens in robots. We are approaching what some call the new dawn of robo-humanity. When that day comes, what myths will we tell ourselves? The answer will also determine how and what the robots will learn.
By: Adrien Mayor
