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【案例】 GodsAnd Robots
Time-traveling back to antiquity might helpus think about the human transformations of the future. According to Greek myth, after the creationof humans and animals, the gods assigned Prometheus and his younger brotherEpimetheus to allocate their capabilities. The brothers were Titans, a race ofdivine beings. Epimetheus requested the privilege of assigning the variouspowers and characteristics to the creatures on Earth, promising that Prometheuscould then inspect his work. Epimetheus began sorting out the natures ofthe animals of land, sea and sky. So absorbed was Epimetheus in the task ofensuring their survival — with speed, strength, agility, keen eyesight andhearing, a superb sense of smell, venom, camouflage, wings, feathers, fur,scales, fangs, talons, hooves and horns — that he absentmindedly used up allthe abilities on non-reasoning beings. Just as his brother Prometheus, whosename means “forethought,” arrived to inspect the creatures — and on the veryday they were destined to emerge on Earth — Epimetheus, whose name means“afterthought,” realized with a start that there was nothing left for thenaked, defenseless humans. Plato relates that Prometheus was“desperate to find some means of survival for the human race,” so heappropriated the technology of fire from the gods to bestow on puny mortals.With the gift of fire, men and women could make tools and figure out ways tocompensate for their pitiful physical shortcomings. “Prometheus and the Eagle.” (JamesSteakley, 1906) In this ancient “speculative fiction” abouthumanity’s relationship with technology, the gifts bestowed by Prometheusrepresent the first human enhancements — the first attempts to overcome thelimitations of the human body by natural or artificial means. Prometheus’s giftto humanity keeps on giving, with potential for both positive and worrisomeramifications. It is techne — craft — along with intellect, imagination andaudacity that are the unique gifts that human beings rely on to survive in theworld. “Technology makes up for our absurd frailty,” the Americanphilosopher of ethics and technology Patrick Lin has written. “We naked apescouldn’t survive at all, if it weren’t for our tool-making intellect andresourcefulness.” “‘Technology makes up for our absurd frailty.’” — Patrick Lin Facebook Twitter Email Artificial improvements to overcome thelimitations of the human body and to expand natural strength, sensory apparatusand abilities — now known as human enhancement technologies — may seem like cutting-edgescience. We often hear both pessimists and proponents claim that our currenttechnology — including artificial intelligence and genetic engineering — isunprecedented, unique to modernity. Yet the concepts of augmenting humancapabilities are ancient, as are the qualms they evoke. Time-traveling back toantiquity might help us think about the human transformations of the future. The very earliest tools — stone hammers,spears, the atlatl, the bow and arrow — can be considered the first human enhancementsbecause they extended a person’s reach and aim and exerted force. In classicalGreek antiquity, bows and arrows, even when wielded by great mythic heroes likeHercules and Odysseus, were sometimes criticized as cowardly weapons, akin toambush, because they allowed one to kill from afar or in an underhanded waywithout facing an adversary in hand-to-hand combat. Catapults, developed in thefourth century B.C.E., carried forward the trajectory of human enhancements forwarfare, which continues unabated. When he was shown one of the first torsioncatapults in action, the Spartan general Archidamus famously declared that theinvention marked the end of human valor in battle. Greek myths envisioned borrowing theenviable powers of gods and animals to compensate for human vulnerability.These myths represent some of the earliest science fiction, and whereimagination leads, innovation follows. Besides archery and catapults, we havemany historical examples of human enhancement technologies in antiquity, fromprosthetics of surprising ingenuity to developments in military armor. Thedesire to enhance human capabilities is timeless, and it is striking to see howmythic and historical examples foreshadow modern advancements — and drawbacks —in trying to improve nature. Human Enhancements In Myth Plenty of myths and legends turn on thefolly of seeking immortality. But if turning back old age and postponingnatural death were impossible, then could mortals at least hope to enhancetheir physical capabilities? Humans were so feeble compared to the gods; evenbrute animals enjoyed more magnificent powers than the most robust men andwomen. In classical antiquity, a thought-provoking group of mythic tales aboutartificial life investigated whether “biotechne” — “life through craft” — couldbe used to upgrade nature and somehow engineer hyper-human abilities. Today, human enhancements — includingvisual and hearing aids, titanium joints, artificial heart valves, bionicprosthetics and an array of medicines — are commonplace and welcomed. Butcontroversies arise over some human improvements and supernatural enhancementsslated for questionable uses. People start to worry when, for example,corporations create lip-reading and facial-recognition software and claim thatonly good uses will be made of them. Serious concerns also surround scientists’ambitions to make “more than human” individuals through implants, artificialintelligence-enabled exoskeletons, human-machine hybrids, human-animal hybrids,gene manipulation, neuro-robotics, micro-robotics, powerful drugs,electro-pharmaceuticals and biomimetic technologies. A swarm of practical andmoral risks rises around attempts to “upgrade” the bodies of humans to developaugmented super-soldiers, military androids and cyborgs. The outlines of someof those quandaries were foreshadowed in ancient Greek times. Hephaestus,the Greek god of fire and forges. (Benoitb/Getty) In myths about the legendary inventorDaedalus, the techno-wizard Medea and the super-watcher Argus, we find theearliest records of how the Greeks imagined it might be possible to augmenthuman powers. Daedalus was a brilliant craftsman who famously fabricated wingsfor himself and his son Icarus to escape from King Minos’s labyrinth prison.Daedalus layered real feathers to make wings patterned on birds’ pinions. Hisreplica wings were successful — both men achieved flight, but at a terriblecost. Icarus plunged to his death, in an accident anticipated by his father,who had warned his son not to fly too high. In the epic story of Jason and theArgonauts, the cunning sorceress Medea devised ways to help Jason defendhimself against superior deadly forces and overcome a series of obstacles towin the prized golden fleece. The first impossible task was to yoke a pair offire-breathing, bronze bulls forged for King Aeetes by Hephaestus, the god ofinvention. Aeetes commanded Jason to plow a field with the brazen bulls andplant a helmet-full of dragon’s teeth. The king was confident that even ifJason somehow managed to avoid being burned to death and planted the teeth, hewould be slain by the unstoppable automaton warriors that would spring up fromthe sown dragon teeth. In search of ultra-powerful “pharmaka”(drugs) for Jason, Medea trekked to the high Caucasus Mountains, to the rockycrag where Zeus had chained Prometheus as punishment for stealing fire. Medeaknew that a rare flowering plant grew in the soil wherever precious ichordripped from Prometheus’s side as it was ravaged by the eagle. When cut, thestrange plant’s fleshy roots oozed a black sap containing the essence of theimmortal titan’s ichor. Ichor was the life-fluid of the immortal gods. Medeacollected the sap and compounded a potent drug known as “Promethean.” Theeffects of the ichor mixture were spectacular but lasted only a single day. The ichor drug gave the passive and scrawnyJason incredible courage and stamina. As Medea promised, he suddenly sensed“terrifying powers entering his body.” He felt “unbounded valor and great mightlike that of the immortal gods.” His arms twitched and flexed, his handsclenching at his sides. “Like a warhorse eager for battle,” Jason “exulted inthe superhuman strength of his limbs.” As the ichor mixture coursed through hisbody, Jason “strode and leaped about, brandishing his spear and roaring like awild beast.” Medea’s special Promethean drug transformed Jason into the Hulk.It gave him souped-up physical aggression and mental fortitude to successfullywrangle the unnatural bulls and withstand their searing breath long enough tocomplete the mission. “These myths represent some of the earliest science fiction, andwhere imagination leads, innovation follows.” Facebook Twitter Email The effects of the imaginary potion onJason bring to mind the effects of synthetic psychoactive stimulants. There arereports of street drugs chemically related to but much stronger than cathinonefrom khat plants that can cause users to feel that they have superhumanstrength and goad them into ferocious acts. Meanwhile, military pharmacologistsare keen to develop complex human-enhancement concoctions that couldsupercharge soldiers mentally and physically, making them behave much like Jasonunder the influence of the Promethean ichor. Military-scientific projects seekdrugs and neuro-technological brain interventions that would allow troops toexceed normal aggression, feel no pain, erase negative thoughts, override moralqualms about torture or killing, and obliterate memories of wartime violence oratrocities. The Pentagon’s scientists are also seeking neuro-pharmacologicaltechnologies to allow troops to go forego sleep. These pursuits have historical echoes: inHomer’s epic poem about the survivors of the decade-long Trojan War, Helen ofTroy mixed an elixir called nepenthe and gave it to the shell-shocked veteransto dispel their lingering rage, grief and traumatic memories of the battles andatrocities. There’s also the myth of Io, a young woman whom the goddess Herasought to protect from being raped by Zeus. Hera deployed a giant android namedArgus that possessed multiple eyes that never closed. In some ancient texts,Argus was called Panoptes (“all-seeing”). Argus Panoptes could watch in alldirections with his many eyes. Hera bestowed two more enhancements on Argus:perpetual physical strength without normal fatigue and eternal vigilance. Henever slept. The English philosopher Jeremy Bentham, whodied in the 1830s, designed a building called the panopticon to be used inprisons and other institutions, and he named the design after thehyper-vigilant watcher that could observe from all angles. The myth of ArgusPanoptes also prefigures the proliferation of surveillance cameras and bodycameras so ubiquitous in the modern world. It is no surprise that numeroussecurity providers operate under the name Argus or Argos. The human enhancement technologies soughtby military scientists to allow soldiers to go long periods without sleep andstill remain vigilant and able to carry out their duties ignores thestill-mysterious necessity for sleep for human wellbeing. Notably, the myth didnot end well for Argus, whose super-abilities were “hacked” by Zeus. Zeus senthis messenger Hermes to slay Argus. Hermes closed down each of the eyes with asecret code so that he could smash the sleeping giant’s head with a stone. Human Enhancements In History Replacement limbs and bionic body parts —the melding of human and machine — also have deep roots in mythology. In Celticmythology, for example, King Nuada of the Silver Hand had an arm fashioned bythe inventor god Dian Cecht. The Norse goddess Freyja was imagined as a kind of“organic cyborg” whose body combined both flesh and metal. In Hindu epictraditions, the heroine Vishpala lost a leg in battle and Vadhrimati losthands, which the gods replaced with iron and gold replicas. In classical Greekmyth, the inventor god Hephaestus made an ivory scapula to replace the missingshoulder blade of the hero Pelops. The earliest historical record of aprosthetic body part was reported in the fifth century B.C.E. by the Greekhistorian Herodotus. Hegesistratus, a Greek soldier, lost part of his footunder torture by the Spartans. Hegesistratus managed to escape and had a woodenreplacement foot made. He went on to fight in the Battle of Plataea on thePersian side because of his hatred for the Spartans. Another historical examplewas recounted by Pliny, who wrote how M. Sergius Silus, a Roman veteran of theSecond Punic War against Carthage, wore an iron hand to replace the one he lostin battle. Archaeological discoveries have unearthedsurprisingly early evidence of artificial limbs and other body parts, some ofthem aesthetic and others functional. A skull from a site in France dated to3000 B.C.E., for example, sported a false ear carved from a shell. Some of themost ancient prosthetic devices are quite sophisticated. In about 700 B.C.E., ahighly skilled artisan who clearly understood the biomechanics of walking madea finely carved artificial toe for a woman. Archaeologists who discovered hermummy in 1997 near Luxor, Egypt, reported that the replacement toe not onlyappeared realistic but was tailor-made for her foot and even shows evidence ofrefittings. It was constructed in three sections of wood and leather, with ahinge for flexibility. Worn barefoot or with sandals, the woman’s prosthetictoe likely allowed relatively comfortable mobility. JonathanZawada for Noema Magazine An intriguing bionic eye was discovered byarchaeologists in the ancient Burnt City site in Iran. The meticulouslyrealistic artificial eyeball was embedded in the left eye socket of a woman wholived about 4,800 years ago. The anatomical details are amazingly true to nature,with a convex surface, cornea, pupil and an interior with extremely fine goldenwires to mimic the capillary network inside the eye. It was the disquietingalmost-real quality of 20th-century prosthetics that inspired the roboticsengineer Masahiro Mori to describe in 1970 the eerie sensation known as the“uncanny valley” — the strange gulf in understanding a human-like object. Metal body armor was another kind of earlyartificial human enhancement. Bronze armor was designed to make warriors’bodies less vulnerable to weapons, of course. But what stands out about thebronze armor of classical antiquity is its form. The main piece of Greekhoplite armor, the cuirass or chest plate, was molded to look like theidealized male physique cast in bronze. Notably, the first robot ever describedin Greek mythology (around 700 B.C.E.) was Talos, a giant android automatonthat was constructed entirely of bronze. Ancient vase painters of the fifthcentury B.C.E. depicted Talos’s bronze body in the same way — using ayellowish-white color and indicating seams and rivets — that they used toportray the bronze chest armor of hoplite soldiers. “Anatomical” bronze chest armor, also called “heroic” or “muscle”armor, first appeared in archaic Greece (seventh century B.C.E.) and becamewidespread by the fifth century B.C.E. The bronze cuirass was cast in twopieces, front and back, and attached by leather straps. Skilled smiths hammeredthe cuirass to fit over a man’s upper body, with realistic details in relief tomimic the naked torso of a superhero, with nipples, navel and impressivelysculpted pectoral and abdominal muscles resembling those of the mythicstrongman Heracles. The greaves (bronze leg armor) were also shaped todelineate well-defined shin and calf muscles. “Sophocles cautioned that this same bold ingenuity ‘sometimes leadsto good but sometimes to evil.’” Facebook Twitter Email A Greek hoplite in bronze chest and legarmor was essentially wearing an exoskeleton that replicated the outerappearance of a nude, heroic statue. The muscle-bound bronze chest plate andgreaves transformed every soldier — no matter what his body type — into anidealized warrior, a living Talos, a man of bronze. An advancing, clankingphalanx of Greek hoplite soldiers clad in muscle armor would present the enemywith what appeared to be a wall of superhuman warriors. Today, U.S. military scientists arereviving a highly advanced exoskeleton idea inspired by the mythic figure ofthe bronze automaton Talos. Designated by the acronym T.A.L.O.S. (TacticalAssault Light Operator Suit), the special suit is to be augmented withartificial intelligence software, sensors, and offensive and defensive weaponssystems. The design even features multiple “eyes” like Argus, the all-seeingguardian of myth, or Lynceus, the look-out on Jason’s ship Argo, whoseextraordinarily sharp eyes could see in the dark and penetrate walls, trees,skin, and the ground. In the fifth century B.C.E., the tragicplaywright Sophocles wrote that we humans are formidable, for no othercreatures have the skill and daring to navigate the stormy seas, plow theearth, tame horses and oxen, hunt and fish, devise laws, make war and build andgovern cities. What other creatures have the facilities of language and“wind-swift thought” of “all-resourceful” humans, “ceaselessly contriving waysto escape the forces of nature”? Humans’ skills and inventive arts, Sophoclescontinued, are what drive us to achieve wonders and allow us to surpass nature.Yet we need to be mindful, Sophocles cautioned, that this same bold ingenuity“sometimes leads to good but sometimes to evil.” Parts of this essay are adapted from theauthor’s recent book, “Gods and Robots: Myths, Machines and Ancient Dreams ofTechnology.”
作者：ADRIENNE MAYOR 编辑：冯梦玉
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楼主: 刘海明
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