4 ms·
Surely the right question to ask is what is the origin of computing with regards to the mythological tale of "daemons". The Greeks built a mechanical computer c
by ducttapecrown 5y ago
Surely the right question to ask is what is the origin of computing with regards to the mythological tale of "daemons". The Greeks built a mechanical computer called the antikythera mechanism, and tales of clockwork automotons have existed for millenia. So my argument would be that the concept of a "daemon" doing your computational work for you entirely precedes modern computation.
Edit: The second response to the stack exchange question consists of pretty much this argument, and the Wikipedia page [1] has more information!
[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Daemon_%28computing%29#Etymology https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Daemon_%28computing%29#Etymolo...
- Melatonic 5y agoI like this version the best regardless of what the originators thought
- lioeters 5y ago> As early as Homer, Greeks were imagining robotic servants, animated statues, and even ancient versions of Artificial Intelligence, while in Indian legend, Buddha’s precious relics were defended by robot warriors copied from Greco-Roman designs for real automata. Mythic automata appear in tales about Jason and the Argonauts, Medea, Daedalus, Prometheus, and Pandora, and many of these machines are described as being built with the same materials and methods that human artisans used to make tools and statues. And, indeed, many sophisticated animated devices were actually built in antiquity, reaching a climax with the creation of a host of automata in the ancient city of learning, Alexandria, the original Silicon Valley. Gods and Robots: Myths, Machines, and Ancient Dreams of Technology - Adrienne Mayor https://classics.stanford.edu/publications/gods-and-robots-myths-machines-and-ancient-dreams-technology https://classics.stanford.edu/publications/gods-and-robots-m...