It is not known who attempted to create the first
artificially intelligent agent. But there is evidence that
automata of some sort were being construted in ancient
Greece.
From Pindar's seventh Olympic Ode:
The animated figures stand
Adorning every public street
And seem to breathe in stone,
or move their marble feet.
The Antikythera Mechanism
A complex, geared device constructed around 125 BC and used
for calculating positions of astronomical objects.
17th and 18th century automata
As clockwork engineering skills advanced in the 17th and 18th
centuries, automata such as de Vaucanson's mechanical duck (which could
eat and defecate) became more common.
The idea of the `artificial being' became an increasing
fascination.
Mary Shelley's `Frankenstein' reflects this trend.
The mechanical trumpetteer
Constructed by Friedrich Kaufmann in 1810, this used a
`program' (stepped drum) mounted internally to play a tune.
The notes mounted on the drum activated valves that let the
air pass by 12 `tongues'.
Enter the robot
First robot from the 1921 play `R.U.R.'
Derivation of the word
The word `Robot' comes from the 1921 play `R.U.R.' (Rossum's Universal
Robots) by the Czech writer Karel Capek (pronounced `chop'ek'). `Robot'
comes from the Czech word `robota', meaning `forced labor.'
The word `robotic' also comes from science fiction - it first
appeared in the short story `Runaround' (1942) by Isaac
Asimov. This story was later included in Asimov's famous book
`I, Robot.'
Fantasy robots
HAL 9000 computer from `2001': fantasy robot with human-level
skills of language and thought.
Also, the child-robot in Spielberg's `Articial Intelligence'
