Hephaestus: When Artifacts Act

In the Iliad, Hephaestus is assisted by artificial golden maidens endowed with capacities associated with living persons.The ancient fantasy is already recognizably humanoid:Can...

One of the most persistent fantasies is delegation.The artificial being carries, assists, manufactures, obeys.labor → delegated labor → autonomous laborThe machine performs what...

A machine need not imitate the whole human.It may instead extend a capacity.lever → forcevehicle → movementwriting → memorycomputer → calculationartificial agent → cognition?