3.1330 Robots (33)
Elaine Brennan & Allen Renear (EDITORS@BROWNVM.BITNET)
Mon, 30 Apr 90 16:53:20 EDT
Humanist Discussion Group, Vol. 3, No. 1330. Monday, 30 Apr 1990.
(1) Date: Friday, 27 April 1990 9:32pm ET (21 lines)
From: "Sheizaf.Rafaeli" <21898MGR@MSU>
Subject: Re: Medieval human-like robots
(2) Date: Sat, 28 Apr 90 16:03 PDT (6 lines)
From: KESSLER <IME9JFK@UCLAMVS.BITNET>
Subject: Re: 3.1324 Notes and Queries (66)
(3) Date: Sat, 28 Apr 90 21:36:17 IST (6 lines)
From: Daniel Boyarin <BOYARIN@TAUNIVM>
Subject: Re: 3.1324 Notes and Queries (66)
(1) --------------------------------------------------------------------
Date: Friday, 27 April 1990 9:32pm ET
From: "Sheizaf.Rafaeli" <21898MGR@MSU>
Subject: Re: Medieval human-like robots
Jewish lore tells about Golem, a robotlike servant made of clay and given
life (loaded an operating system) by way of a charm. At least two
different versions exist about this charm: The name of God features in
one. The word for truth in Hebrew (EMET) is the OS in the other version.
I prefer the latter, because it leads better into the end of the story.
As it goes, this servant was created to save the Jews of Prague from
some pogroms. But the servant runs amok, and out of control. The
solution is to climb up to its forehead, erase one letter from the charm
inscribed there, turning EMET into MET. Met, in Hebrew, means dead.
That was the first Ctrl-Alt-Delete.
Two btw's:
1) Golem was the name for the first computer built at the Weizmann
Institute in the fifties.
2) I think the human protagonist of this story was Eliahu Hagaon, a
prominent Non-Hassidic Rabbi. Which makes the story even more delicious.
I'm hoping someone can correct my factual errors - I'm sure there are
some.
Sheizaf
(2) --------------------------------------------------------------217---
Date: Sat, 28 Apr 90 16:03 PDT
From: KESSLER <IME9JFK@UCLAMVS.BITNET>
Subject: Re: 3.1324 Notes and Queries (66)
I have a very vague recollection of a metal or stone man in one or
another of the 1001 Nights too, and would guess that there are Persian
sources for such things antedating the West's. You would have to check
with an Iranian scholar of course, as Burton is not indexed that
way...although his notes to Chapters could be got through in a week?
Kessler
(3) --------------------------------------------------------------13----
Date: Sat, 28 Apr 90 21:36:17 IST
From: Daniel Boyarin <BOYARIN@TAUNIVM>
Subject: Re: 3.1324 Notes and Queries (66)
on medieval robots: do you know about the golem, the hominoid that was
made by the holy rabbi of prague?