There have been machines that move themselves for millennia. In the first
century C.E., the Greek mathematician Hero of Alexandria designed dolls that
could be used to act out miniature theatrical scenes. The original treatises he
wrote about these automata were lost to history. But a group of Sicilian
scholars discovered Arabic translations in the thirteenth century. Translating
into Latin, the monks coined a new term for automata that looked human: androïdes,
from andros, the Greek word for “man.”Androids have always inspired mythmaking. In the thirteenth century,
legend spread that a Dominican bishop named Albertus Magnus had built an Iron
Man to guard his chamber. It stood at …read more
Source: The New Republic
