Tempting the Gods
As an aspiring roboticist, I'm always aware of the megalomaniacal nature of trying to make a machine that is (even a little bit) like a living thing. It is traditionally the sort of thing that Man Was Not Meant to Know, and just cause for the villagers to storm the laboratory with pitchforks.I was thinking though that the criteria for outrageous technical hubris have really changed over time. Once upon a time just weaving a tapestry or playing a flute or constructing a tall building was enough to get you in dutch with supernatural powers. By the nineteenth century you had to be making new creatures by sewing human and/or animal parts together. Nowadays you pretty much have to be doing something involving DNA or possibly altering past history. I'm not sure that building giant robots even counts any more; it is becoming respectable.
posted by Richard Mason @ Monday, August 29, 2005
2 Comments:
Richard,
Without sounding snarky, would a modern example also include building a major U.S. city below sea level?
Yes, perhaps so. Yet no one is calling for evacuation of the Netherlands...
I guess I am pro-hubris. I think we should build cities in flood plains and on fault zones and in frozen climates and underwater if we want.
Post a Comment
<< Home