This public lecture by SLAC features an irreverent non-technical review of the history of surprisingly animate machines, from ancient Egypt to current times. Including teleoperators for hazardous environments, assembly systems, medical applications, entertainment, and science fiction.

100 slides, covering such varied topics as Memnon son of Dawn, Droz’s automata, Vaucanson’s duck, cathedral clocks, Von Kempelen’s chess player, household robots, Asimov’s laws, Disneyland, dinosaurs, and movie droids and cyborgs. Lecturer: David Grossman, SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory.

SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory is one of 10 Department of Energy (DOE) Office of Science laboratories and is operated by Stanford University on behalf of the DOE.