Gear

On Robots, c. 350 B.C.

Pondering the problem of philosophy, and how to achieve the necessary leisure to practice it, Aristotle concluded that slaves are an unfortunate but necessary evil. How else manage the drudgery of menial tasks and squeeze in a few solid hours of thinking? As Discover Magazine’s Cosmic Variance blog noted recently, Aristotle did contemplate another solution: […]

Pondering the problem of philosophy, and how to achieve the necessary leisure to practice it, Aristotle concluded that slaves are an unfortunate but necessary evil. How else manage the drudgery of menial tasks and squeeze in a few solid hours of thinking?

As Discover Magazine's Cosmic Variance blog noted recently, Aristotle did contemplate another solution:

There is only one condition in which we can imagine managers not needing subordinates, and masters not needing slaves.
This condition would be that each (inanimate) instrument could do its own work, at the word of command or by intelligent anticipation, like the statues of Daedalus or the tripods made by Hephaestus, of which Homer relates that

“Of their own motion they entered the conclave of Gods on Olympus"

as if a shuttle should weave of itself, and a plectrum should do its own harp playing.

So robots will make us free. Or, more precisely, they will make our servants free. Sounds incredibly prescient.

On the other hand, it's hard to tell if he meant that ironically, drawing as he does from magical examples in poetry. "There is only one condition" sets this up as a ridiculous possibility, completely out of reach. So, if this was a joke, maybe it was on him. Or us?

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