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Replicants and robots: What can ancient Greek myths teach us?

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https://aeon.co/essays/replicants-and-ro...s-teach-us

EXCERPT: The question of what it meant to be human obsessed the ancient Greeks. Time and again, their stories explored the promises and perils of staving off death, extending human capabilities, replicating life. The beloved myths of Hercules, Jason and the Argonauts, the sorceress Medea, the engineer Daedalus, the inventor-god Hephaestus, and the tragically inquisitive Pandora all raised the basic question of the boundaries between human and machine. Today, developments in biotechnology and advances in artificial intelligence (AI) bring a new urgency to questions about the implications of combining the biological and the technological. It’s a discussion that we might say the ancient Greeks began.

[...] Deeply imbued with metaphysical insight and forebodings about human manipulation of natural life, these ancient stories seem startlingly of our moment. When remembered as enquiries into what ancient Greeks called bio-techne (bios = life, techne = crafted through the art of science), the ‘science fictions’ of antiquity take on eerie contemporary significance. Medea and other bio-techne myths inspired haunting, dramatic performances and indelible illustrations in classical vase paintings and sculpture.

Meanwhile, in about 400 BC, Archytas, a friend of Plato’s, caused a sensation with his mechanical steam-propelled bird. The Hellenistic engineer Hero of Alexandria devised hundreds of automated machines driven by hydraulics and pneumatics. Other artisans crafted animated figures that made sounds, opened doors, poured wine and even attacked humans. Clearly, bio-techne fascinated the ancient Greeks.

Artificial, undying existence might tantalise but can it ever be magnificent or noble?

Behind these techno-wonders lies a search for perpetual life. [...] Questing heroes in myths come to terms with physical death, accepting an afterlife in human memory even as they become Homer’s ‘twittering ghosts’ in the Underworld. The myths deliver an existential message: death is inevitable and in fact the possibilities of human dignity, autonomy and heroism depend on mortality.

Indeed, given a choice by the gods, Achilles and other heroes reject long lives of comfort and ease, much less everlasting life. In myth after myth, great heroes and heroines emphatically choose brief, memorable lives of honour, high-stakes risks and courage. ‘If our lives be short – let them be glorious!’ Artificial, undying existence might tantalise but can it ever be magnificent or noble?

[...] Earlier this year, engineers at the US weapons manufacturer Raytheon created three diminutive learning robots. They gave the robots classical names: Zeus, Athena and Hercules. With neural systems modelled on those of cockroaches and octopuses, the little solar-powered robots were bestowed with three gifts: the ability to move, a craving for darkness, and the capacity to recharge in sunlight. The robots quickly learned to mutate and soon understood that they must venture into excruciating light to recharge or die. This seemingly simple learning conflict parallels human ‘cognitive economy’, in which emotions help the brain allocate resources and strategise. Other AI experiments are teaching computers how human strangers convey goodwill to one another and how mortals react to negative and positive emotions.

Since Hawking warned that ‘AI could spell the end of the human race’, some scientists are proposing that human values and ethics could be taught to robots by having them read stories. Fables, novels, and other literature, even a database of Hollywood movie plots could serve as a kind of ‘human user manual’ for computers. [...]

Computers might be modelled on human brains but human minds do not work just like computers. We are learning that our cognitive function and rational thinking depends on emotions. Stories appeal to emotions, pathos. Stories continue to live as long as they summon ambiguous emotions, as long as they resonate with real dilemmas and are good to think with. [...] The rise of a robot-artificial intelligence ‘culture’ no longer seems far-fetched. AI’s human inventors and mentors are already building that culture’s logos, ethos and pathos. As humans are enhanced by technology and become more like machines, robots are becoming infused with something like humanity. 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 shape how and what robots learn, too....
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