Playing God: Wisdom from the Greeks or Monsters of Artificial Intelligence? - CounterPunch.org

Apollo (left, his head shining), god of light, prophesy, music, and the arts of civilization, talks to god Hephaistos (closer to Apollo) and the 4 Cyclopes who made the thunderbolt for Zeus. In fact, machines and products of craftsmanship were part of the fabric of Greek culture, both political and religious. Even gods (Prometheus, Metis, Athena, and Hephaistos) protected the technological civilization of the Greeks. Indeed, the gods created models of craftsmanship that triggered the Greek imagination for a scientific and technological understanding of the Cosmos. The Cyclopes were the earliest engineering geniuses in Greek culture. They manufactured the almighty thunderbolt for Zeus to bring the war among the gods to an end. But the thunderbolt made Zeus supreme. That mythology, which the Greeks considered early history, provided the metaphysics of zeal and success in technical work.