URLs for A “Pre-History” & a Foundational Context:

• This post is the main post on a Pre-History & a Foundational context of the Field of AI. In this post a narrative is constructed surrounding the “Pre-History”. It links with the following posts:
• The post here is a first and very short linking with on Literature, Mythology & Arts as one of the foundational contexts of the Field of AI
• The second part in the contextualization is the post touching on a few attributes from Philosophy, Psychology and Linguistics
• Following, one can read about very few attributes picked up on from Control Theory as contextualizing to the Field of AI
• Cognitive Science is the fourth field that is mapped with the Field of AI.
• Mathematics & Statistics is in this writing the sixth area associated as a context to the Field of AI
• Other fields contextualizing the Field of AI are being considered (e.g. Data Science & Statistics, Economy, Engineering fields)

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01 — The Field of AI: A Foundational Context: Literature, Mythology, Visual Arts

 The early Greek Myths (about 2500 years ago) showcase stories of artificially intelligent bronze automatons or statues that were brought to life which then in turn exhibited degrees of “intelligence”. If you want to dig deeper search for Pygmalion’s Galateia, or look up the imaginary stories of Talos (Talus)[1].

China’s literary classics; for instance, Volume 5 “The Questions of Tang” of the Lièzǐ, perhaps unwittingly also explored the imagination of Artificial Intelligence. See, the example mentioned in the post on the Field f AI and a Pre-History.

The many thousands years old Jewish myth of the “golem” (גולם‎), fantasized about a creature made of clay that magically came to life. It could be interpreted as an imagination of the raw material for a controllable automaton and an artificial form of some degree of intelligence. While its cultural symbolism is far richer than given justice here, it could be imagined as symbolizing a collective human capability to envision giving some form and function of intelligence to materials that we, in general, do not tend to equate with comparable capability (i.e. raw materials for engineered design).

It is suggested in some sources[2] that artificial intelligence (in the literary packaging of imagined automatons or other) was also explored in European literary works such as in the 1816 German Der Sandmann (The Sandman) by Ernst Theodor Amadeus Hoffman,[3]  with the story’s character Olympia. The artificial is also explored by the fictional character Dr. Wagner, who creates Homunculus (a little man-like automaton), in Faust by Goethe,[4] and in Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein.[5] Much earlier yet, far less literary and rather philosophically, the artificial was suggested in the 1747 publication entitled L’Homme Machine (Man—Machine) by the French Julien Offray de la Mettrie, who posited the hypothesis that a human being as any other animal, are automatons or machines.

The next post will cover some hints of Philosophy in association with the Field of AI

Mini
Project #___ : Exploring the Pre-History of AI in your own and your larger
context.

Collect any other old stories from within China, Asia or elsewhere (from a location or culture that is not necessarily your own) that reference similar imaginations of “artificial intelligence” as constructed in the creative minds of our ancestors. 

Share your findings in a collection of references from the entire class. 

Maybe make a large collage that can be hung up on the wall, showing “artificial intelligence” from the past, through-out the ages.

Alternative: the teacher shares a few resources or references from the Arts (painting, sculpture, literature, mythology, etc.) that covered these topics and that are examples of the pre-history of AI.

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[1] Parada, C. (Dec 10, 1993). Genealogical Guide to Greek Mythology. Studies in Mediterranean Archaeology, Vol 107. Coronet Books

[2] McCorduck, P. (2004). Machines Who Think: A Personal Inquiry into the History and Prospects of Artificial Intelligence. Natick: A K Peters, Ltd. p. xxv

[3]Hoffmann,  E.T.A. (1816). Der Sandmann. In Hoffmann (1817). Die Nachtstücke.  Retrieved on April 8, 2020 from https://germanstories.vcu.edu/hoffmann/sand_pics.html  translated here https://germanstories.vcu.edu/hoffmann/sand_e_pics.html additional information: http://self.gutenberg.org/articles/The_Sandman_(short_story) 

[4] Nielsen, W. C. (2016). Goethe, Faust, and Motherless Creations. Goethe Yearbook, 23(1), 59–75. North American Goethe Society.  Information retrieved on April 8, 2020 from https://muse.jhu.edu/article/619344/pdf

[5] An artistic interpretation of the link between the artificial life of the Frankenstein character and AI is explored here: http://frankenstein.ai/  Retrieved on April 8, 2020