Medieval Robots: Mechanism, Magic, Nature, and Art (The Middle Ages Series)
| Author | : | |
| Rating | : | 4.95 (857 Votes) |
| Asin | : | 0812246977 |
| Format Type | : | paperback |
| Number of Pages | : | 296 Pages |
| Publish Date | : | 2017-01-27 |
| Language | : | English |
DESCRIPTION:
R. Truitt is Associate Professor of History at Bryn Mawr College. E.
Helpful and thorough historical analysis of medieval robots. In summary the author, a long standing expert in this subject, provides a thorough, thoughtful and helpful historical analysis of Medieval Robots until the mid-to-end C 15. There is a relatively small gap thereafter until the advent of automata in Italy and France in the C. 16 which remains to be filled in a book, as opposed to a number of specialist articles. The actual robotic mechanisms throughout these periods need further analysis and identification both pictorially and in writing. Various University PhD theses are to be found on line but there is no up to date aut. there's an additional like 50 pages or so of great footnotes--most of them Carl The whole time I was reading this book I was thinking about Clarke's third law: “Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.” It really hits the difficulty that people of any era have in reconciling the bounds of current knowledge with our experiences in a world full of marvels. It doesn't apply 100% here, but much of the book does explore the ways in which medieval peoples tried to fit foreign mechanisms into previously existing frames of reference.Overall, Medieval Robots is a fascinating investigation of role of automata in the c
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. 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. E. This original and wide-ranging study reveals the convergence of science, technology, and imagination in medieval culture and demonstrates the striking similarities between medieval and modern robotic and cybernetic visions.. Chronicled in romances and song as well as histories and encyclopedias, medieval automata were powerful cultural objects that probed the limits of natural philosophy, illuminated and challenged definitions of life and death, and epitomized the transformative and threatening potential of foreign knowledge and culture. Truitt traces the different forms of self-moving or self-sustaining manufactured objects from their earliest appe
"The first comprehensive work of scholarship on European automata of the Middle Ages, Medieval Robots systematically and chronologically works through themes such as the transition from the magical to the mechanical and the liminal status of robots between art and nature, familiar and foreign. Well researched and well written, the book does an excellent job of showing the wider cultural significance of automata within medieval history and the history of science."—Pamela O. Long, author of Openness, Secrecy, Authorship: Technical Arts and the Culture of Knowledge from Antiquity to the Renaissance