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So what’s new? Intriguing book C.S.Lewis might have liked: “Medieval Robots: Mechanism, Magic, Nature, and Art”, by Truitt, E. R., University of Pennsylvania Press 2015.
“A thousand years before Isaac Asimov set down his Three Laws of Robotics, real and imagined automata appeared in European courts, liturgies, and literary texts. Medieval robots took such forms as talking statues, mechanical animals, and silent metal guardians; some served to entertain or instruct while others performed disciplinary or surveillance functions. Variously ascribed to artisanal genius, inexplicable cosmic forces, or demonic powers, these marvelous fabrications raised fundamental questions about knowledge, nature, and divine purpose in the Middle Ages….”