Gods and Robots

By Adrienne Mayor,

Book cover of Gods and Robots: Myths, Machines, and Ancient Dreams of Technology

Book description

The fascinating untold story of how the ancients imagined robots and other forms of artificial life-and even invented real automated machines

The first robot to walk the earth was a bronze giant called Talos. This wondrous machine was created not by MIT Robotics Lab, but by Hephaestus, the Greek godā€¦

When you buy books, we may earn a commission that helps keep our lights on (or join the rebellion as a member).

Why read it?

1 author picked Gods and Robots as one of their favorite books. Why do they recommend it?

Full disclosure: Adrienne Mayor is my wife. But that is not why I chose this book: It is a mind-blowing account of ancient dreams of technology and ancient scientific wonders. Mayor is a master storyteller. She recreates the ancient myths to reveal the timeless fascination with ā€œartificial lifeā€ ā€“ with beings that are like us in some ways, except that they are ā€œmade, not born.ā€ Long before humans could create real mechanical men and thinking machines, the Greeks dared to imagine what that would mean for humans and our relations with one another. And they imagined the inner lives andā€¦

If you love Gods and Robots...

Ad

Book cover of Tap Dancing on Everest: A Young Doctor's Unlikely Adventure

Tap Dancing on Everest by Mimi Zieman,

Tap Dancing on Everest, part coming-of-age memoir, part true-survival adventure story, is about a young medical student, the daughter of a Holocaust survivor raised in N.Y.C., who battles self-doubt to serve as the doctorā€”and only womanā€”on a remote Everest climb in Tibet.

The team attempts a new route upā€¦

Want books like Gods and Robots?

Our community of 12,000+ authors has personally recommended 100 books like Gods and Robots.

Browse books like Gods and Robots

Book cover of The Greeks and the Irrational
Book cover of Shame and Necessity
Book cover of Slaves and Slavery in Ancient Greece

Share your top 3 reads of 2024!

And get a beautiful page showing off your 3 favorite reads.

2,008

readers submitted
so far, will you?

Ad

šŸ“š If you like Gods and Robots, you might also like...

I Am Taurus by Stephen Palmer,

Book cover of I Am Taurus

The constellation we know as Taurus goes all the way back to cave paintings of aurochs at Lascaux. This book traces the story of the bull in the sky, a journey through the history of what has become known as the sacred bull.

Each of the sections is written fromā€¦

Caesarā€™s Soldier by Alex Gough,

Book cover of Caesarā€™s Soldier

Who was the man who would become Caesar's lieutenant, Brutus' rival, Cleopatra's lover, and Octavian's enemy? 

When his stepfather is executed for his involvement in the Catilinarian conspiracy, Mark Antony and his family are disgraced. His adolescence is marked by scandal and mischief, his love affairs are fleeting, and yet,ā€¦

5 book lists we think you will like!

Interested in robots, robotics, and mythology?

Robots 101 books
Robotics 16 books
Mythology 861 books