Unfortunately, the people of the XXI century do not have exact knowledge about the events separated from us by tens, hundreds, and even more so thousands of years. After this time, almost all of them turn into legends, fairy tales, myths, or just anecdotes. It is impossible to get to the bottom of what is hidden behind them, or rather, almost impossible
Comparing information about the same event from different sources, one can assume what is actually hidden behind it. For example, there are three events. We learn about the first from the myths of Ancient Greece, about the second from the legends of the Mansi people, descriptions of relatively recent events that took place in the Northern Urals, about the third from the English chronicle. All three can be seen as evidence that robots have existed on Earth for a long time. Only their manufacturers were different: representatives of the most ancient civilization, aliens from outer space and … the crafty artisans of Ivan VI.
Giants, girls and tripods of Hercules
In the legends of Ancient Greece, there is a huge number of unsolved mysteries. For example, the secret of the copper giant, gilded girls and iron tripods of the fire god Hephaestus.
Hephaestus, unlike the rest of the inhabitants of Olympus, did not spend time in idleness. In the golden palace that he built on Olympus, a huge smithy was equipped, in which the working god spent most of his time. It was equipped according to the latest word of not only ancient, but also modern technology. An unquenchable fire blazed continuously in the furnace: natural gas was supplied to it. The 20 bellows were not activated by the movement of the slaves' hands, but obeyed the word of Hephaestus. For each metal that was melted in special furnaces, the optimum temperature was automatically maintained. It was in this wonderful forge that the robots of the Ancient World were created. The most powerful god of the Greek people, Zeus, was born in Crete. There he later hid from his father Crohn, who killed all his children. Therefore, having become the supreme god,Zeus ordered Hephaestus to make a mechanical giant that would guard the island, which once gave him shelter and refuge. It was an indestructible copper Talas, it had only one weak spot - a copper nail in the leg, "locking" the only vein through which molten lead flowed. The combat robot created by Hephaestus could not do too much, but it performed its task very efficiently. For a long time, Talas, which Zeus gave to Minos, went around the island, screaming and stoning successfully driving away alien ships from the coast. But one day he was unlucky - the program embedded in him did not provide for countering wizards. Argonauts swam to Crete, who stole the Golden Fleece in the Caucasus, among whom was Medea. The sorceress put a giant to sleep with her charms, or, in modern terms, introduced a computer virus into the program of a combat robot. Talas fell to the ground, the copper nail locking the vein fell out, and his molten blood-lead poured onto the ground.
But Hephaestus was not the only one making warrior robots. He also created more complex robots, controlled telepathically. 21st century engineers who develop modern computer technology dream of such robots, obeying not only words, but even thoughts. These perfect robots were supposed to serve the feasts of the gods so that no mortal would know about the conversations that were taking place there. The god-blacksmith forged several dozen tripods, which rode around on small wheels between the feasting and, at their silent desire, brought them fruit, wine and a magic drink - ambrosia.
Hephaestus took another step towards a goal that is still unattainable for modern science. He was able to create robots that not only obey mental orders, but are also able to predict the desires of a person or God and independently act to satisfy them. He forged for himself two gilded girls who “had strength, mind and voice. They supported Hephaestus by the arms when he went for a walk, served him, amused him with stories and songs and possessed all the female knowledge that the immortal taught them."
The golden woman of the aliens
Have mysterious aliens from other stellar worlds visited Earth? According to the ufologists - researchers of this fascinating problem - the traces of such visits are literally scattered all over the planet. They also exist in Russia. A lot of them. But one of them, over the course of several centuries, managed to "escape" first from treasure seekers, then from historians, and now from ufologists. This is the trail of the famous Golden Woman.
The stories about the Golden Woman hiding somewhere in the North appeared a long time ago. They are associated with the legendary vast country, stretching in the 9th-12th centuries in the forests covering the valleys of the Northern Dvina, Vychegda and the upper Kama. In Russia it was called the Great Perm, in the Scandinavian sagas a powerful state - Biarmia. The peoples inhabiting it worshiped a huge golden idol - the Golden Woman. Her sanctuary, located, according to the Scandinavian sagas, somewhere near the mouth of the Northern Dvina, was guarded by six shamans day and night.
But time passed. The strengthened neighbors of Perm the Great stretched out their tenacious hands to this rich, but sparsely populated area. First, the Novgorod ushuyniki, then the squads of the Moscow Grand Duke, increasingly began to make their way into the once protected northern forests. Fleeing from Christianity, the admirers of the Golden Woman transferred their idol first to the Ural ridge, and then to the lower reaches of the Ob. The Golden Woman finished her journey, according to some researchers, in the inaccessible gorges of the Putoran Mountains in Taimyr. It was here that the last servants of the golden idol could hide the statue.
The researcher of the history of Biarmia Leonid Teploe suggests that the golden statue could have been carried away from the burning plundered Rome in 410 AD. e. during the attack on Italy, the Ugrians and Goths. Some of them returned to their homeland to the Arctic Ocean, and an antique statue brought from a distant southern city became the idol of the northern people.
But there is another version of the origin of the idol.
The golden woman is not at all like the other idols of the Mansi people, roughly cut out of wood by shamans. This metal statue seemed to have fallen from the sky. Maybe she really fell? This version of the origin of the golden idol was given several years ago.
ufologist Stanislav Ermakov. He believes that Golden Woman is an alien robot, for some reason, maybe due to a partial malfunction, abandoned by its masters. For some time, the Golden Woman could move, and it is with this property that the Mansi legends about the “living” golden idol are connected. Then, it seems, the robot began to gradually fail. At first, the mechanisms that enabled him to move were broken. But the idol could still make sounds. Moreover, not only in the sound range, which is captured by the human ear, but also in the infra-sound range, which directly affects the human psyche and the activity of his heart, and only then it finally turned into a golden statue.
The iron man of Ivan the Terrible
And now the third story, also related to the creation of metal robots. It happened in Russia in the 16th century, during the time of Ivan the Terrible. This story looks like an anecdote of pre-perestroika Russia, when it was generally believed that all scientific discoveries took place in our country, and then were appropriated by the West. But this is not an anecdote, but a historical chronicle. English scientist Peter Dancy made an unexpected discovery. It turns out that the first mechanical man was created by Russian craftsmen during the time of Ivan the Terrible. Sorting through the archives of the Dutch merchant Johan van Vem, the scientist discovered striking records. The Dutch merchant often visited Muscovy and delivered goods to the palace of the most formidable king. Among the things brought by order of Ivan IV from Western Europe were often printed and handwritten books * Only during one trip he sold books to the tsar for a huge sum for those times - five thousand guilders. In the business records, which the Dutchman meticulously kept, a mention of the "iron man" was found. “He was beaten by an iron man for the amusement of the guests of the royal bear. And that bear ran with a howl. " Then the "iron man", surprisingly to everyone who feasted, brought bowls of wine at the table, bowed to everyone to the ground and was almost as if alive. During the feast, one of the overseas guests doubted that the man was really iron, and began to say that a living person was sitting inside him. The king called three artisans, they opened a huge doll and demonstrated springs, levers and gears with which the "iron man" could move.
M. Taranov “Interesting newspaper. Mysteries of Civilization №16 2008