Myths about “artificial intelligence” have been around for hundreds of years – from the traditional Greeks to a pope’s chatbot

It seems that the AI ​​hype has was an AI bubble. There were already lots of bubbles coming out of it Tulip mania the seventeenth century to Derivatives bubble of the twenty first century. For many commentators, essentially the most relevant precedent today is that this Dotcom bubble the Nineteen Nineties. At that point a brand new technology (the World Wide Web) triggered a wave of “irrational exuberance“Investors poured billions into every company with “.com” within the name.

Three a long time later, one other recent technology has sparked one other wave of exuberance. Investors are pouring billions into any company that has “AI” in its name. However, there is an important difference between these two bubbles that just isn’t at all times recognized. The World Wide Web existed. It was real. General artificial intelligence doesn’t exist, and nobody knows it or ever will.

In February, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman wrote on his blog that the very latest systems have just begun, “indicate“AI within the “general” sense. While OpenAI markets its products as “AI,” they’re merely statistical data processors and never “intelligence” within the sense that humans are intelligent.

Why are investors so fascinated with giving money to the people selling AI systems? One reason might be that AI is a technology. I don't mean it's a lie. I mean, it brings to mind a strong, foundational story in Western culture about human creativity.

Perhaps investors are willing to imagine that AI is just across the corner since it addresses myths which are deeply rooted of their minds?

The myth of Prometheus

The myth most relevant to AI is the traditional Greek myth of Prometheus.

There are many versions of this myth, but essentially the most famous are present in Hesiod's poems Theogony And works and daysand within the piece Prometheus certaintraditionally attributed Aeschylus.

Prometheus was a Titan, a god in the traditional Greek pantheon. He was also a criminal who stole fire from Hephaestus, the blacksmith god. Prometheus hid the fireplace in a fennel stalk, got here to earth and gave it to humanity. As a punishment, he was chained to a mountain where an eagle got here on daily basis to eat his liver.

Prometheus' gift was not simply the gift of fireside; it was the gift of intelligence. In Prometheus Bound he explains that before his gift, people saw without seeing and heard without hearing. After his gift, people could write, construct houses, read the celebrities, do mathematics, domesticate animals, construct ships, invent medicines, interpret dreams, and make appropriate offerings to the gods.

The myth of Prometheus is a special form of creation story. In the Hebrew Bible, God doesn’t give Adam the ability to create life. But Prometheus passes on (a part of) the creative power of the gods to humanity.

Hesiod points out this aspect of myth within the Theogony. In this poem, Zeus not only punishes Prometheus for stealing fire; he also punishes humanity. He orders Hephaestus to fireside up his forge and create the primary woman, Pandora, who will bring evil to the world.

The fire that Hephaestus uses to create Pandora is similar fire that Prometheus gave to humanity.

The Greeks proposed the concept that it was a type of artificial intelligence. Prometheus and Hephaestus use technology to create men and ladies. As historian Adrienne Mayor reveals in her book Gods and robotsIn precedent days, Prometheus was often depicted as a craftsman who used extraordinary tools to create people in an extraordinary workshop.

If Prometheus gave us the fireplace of the gods, it seems to follow that we will use that fireside to create our own intelligent beings. Such stories abound in ancient Greek literature, from the inventor Daedalus, who created statues that got here to life, to the witch Medea, who could restore youth and strength along with her sophisticated drugs. Greek inventors also built mechanical computers for astronomy and memorable moving figures powered by gravity, water and air.

The Pope and the Chatbot

2,700 years have passed since Hesiod first wrote the story of Prometheus. In the centuries that followed, the parable was retold many times, particularly for the reason that publication of Mary Shelley's Frankenstein; or the Modern Prometheus in 1818.

But the parable just isn’t at all times told as fiction. Here are two historical examples through which the parable of Prometheus appeared to come true.

Gerbert of Aurillac was the Prometheus of the tenth century. He was born within the early 940s AD and went to high school Aurillac Abbeyand have become a monk himself. He mastered all known branches of science. In 999 he was elected pope. He died in 1003 under his papal name Sylvester II.

Rumors about Gerbert spread wildly throughout Europe. Just a century after his death, his life had grow to be a legend. One of essentially the most famous and relevant legends in our age of AI hype is that of Gerbert's “brazen head”. The legend was told by an English historian within the 1120s William of Malmesburyin his well-researched and highly regarded book, Deeds of the English Kings.

Gerbert had extensive knowledge of astronomy, a science of prediction. Astronomers could use this Astrolabe to predict the position of stars and predict cosmological events equivalent to eclipses. According to William, Gerbert used his knowledge of astronomy to construct a talking head. After studying the movements of the celebrities and planets, he forged a bronze head that would answer yes-or-no questions.

First, Gerbert asked the leader: “Will I grow to be Pope?”

“Yes,” replied the pinnacle.

Then Gerbert asked, “Will I die before I sing Mass in Jerusalem?”

“No,” the leader replied.

In each cases the pinnacle was right, although not in the best way Gerbert expected. He actually became pope and sensibly avoided a pilgrimage to Jerusalem. However, in the future he sang mass Holy Cross in Jerusalem in Rome. Unfortunately for Gerbert, Santa Croce in Gerusalemme was then known simply as “Jerusalem.”

Gerbert became ailing and died. On his deathbed, he asked his servants to chop up his body and throw away the pieces in order that he could go to his true master, Satan. In this manner, like Prometheus, he was punished for his theft of fireside.

It's an exciting story. It just isn’t clear whether William of Malmesbury actually believed this. But he tries to persuade his readers that it’s plausible. Why did this great historian, committed to the reality, insert some fanciful legends a few French pope into his history of England? Good query!

Is it so fanciful to think that a complicated astronomer could construct a general-purpose prediction machine? At that point, astronomy was essentially the most powerful predictive science. The sober and erudite William was at the very least willing to entertain the concept that sensible advances in astronomy could enable a pope to construct an intelligent chatbot.

Today, this capability is attributed to machine learning algorithms that may predict what ad you’ll click on, what movie you’ll watch, and what word you’ll type next. We may be forgiven if we fall under the identical spell.

The anatomist and the automaton

The Prometheus of the 18th century was at the very least Jacques de Vaucanson in response to Voltaire:

The brave Vaucanson, rival of Prometheus,
Seems to mimic nature's sources,
Stealing the fireplace of heaven to quicken the body.

Vaucanson was a terrific machinist, famous for his work vending machines. These were clockworks that realistically imitated the anatomy of individuals or animals. Philosophers of the time believed that the body was a machine – so why couldn't a machinist construct a machine?

Sometimes Vaucanson's automata were scientifically significant. For example, he constructed a whistler that had lips, lungs, and fingers, and blew the whistle in the identical way a human would. Historian Jessica Riskin explains in her book The restless clock that Vaucanson needed to make significant discoveries in acoustics to get his piper in tune.

Sometimes his machines were less scientific. Be Digest duck was extremely famous, but turned out to be fraudulent. It gave the impression to be eating and digesting food, but its feces were actually pre-made pellets hidden contained in the mechanism.

Vaucanson worked for a long time on what he called a “moving anatomy.” In 1741 he presented the Lyon Academy with a plan to construct an “imitation of all animal operations”. Twenty years later he was at it again. He secured the support of King Louis XV to develop a simulation of the circulatory system. He claimed he could construct a whole, living artificial body.

There is not any evidence that Vaucanson ever accomplished a full body. In the tip, he couldn't live as much as the hype. But a lot of his contemporaries believed he could do it. They imagine in its magical mechanisms. They would seize the fireplace of life.

If Vaucanson could make a brand new human body, couldn't he also repair an existing one? That's the promise of some AI firms today. According to Dario Amodei, CEO of Anthropic, AI will do that soon allow people “live so long as you would like”. Immortality looks as if a sexy investment.

Sylvester II and Vaucanson were great technologists, but no Prometheus. They didn't steal fire from the gods. Will Silicon Valley's rising Prometheans succeed where their predecessors failed? If only we had the daring head of Sylvester II, we could ask him.