Automata
In Our Time20 Syys 2018

Automata

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the history of real and imagined machines that appear to be living, and the questions they raise about life and creation. Even in myth they are made by humans, not born. The classical Greeks built some and designed others, but the knowledge of how to make automata and the principles behind them was lost in the Latin Christian West, remaining in the Greek-speaking and Arabic-speaking world. Western travellers to those regions struggled to explain what they saw, attributing magical powers. The advance of clockwork raised further questions about what was distinctly human, prompting Hobbes to argue that humans were sophisticated machines, an argument explored in the Enlightenment and beyond.

The image above is Jacques de Vaucanson's mechanical duck (1739), which picked up grain, digested and expelled it. If it looks like a duck...

with

Simon Schaffer Professor of History of Science at Cambridge University

Elly Truitt Associate Professor of Medieval History at Bryn Mawr College

And

Franziska Kohlt Doctoral Researcher in English Literature and the History of Science at the University of Oxford

Producer: Simon Tillotson

Jaksot(1083)

Welcoming Misha Glenny

Welcoming Misha Glenny

Misha Glenny introduces himself to you ahead of his first episode on 15th January, answering some questions from producer Simon Tillotson and sharing what's coming up in the first few weeks.In Our Tim...

5 Helmi 6min

Melvyn Bragg meets Misha Glenny

Melvyn Bragg meets Misha Glenny

Before Misha Glenny's first edition on 15th January, BBC Radio 4's flagship news programme Today has brought Melvyn Bragg and Misha Glenny together so they can share their ideas about In Our Time's su...

22 Tammi 16min

Civility

Civility

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the idea that Civility, in one of its meanings, is among the most valuable social virtues: the skill to discuss topics that really matter to you, with someone who disag...

31 Heinä 202551min

Dragons

Dragons

Melvyn Bragg and guests explore dragons, literally and symbolically potent creatures that have appeared in many different guises in countries and cultures around the world. Sometimes compared to snake...

24 Heinä 202546min

Barbour's 'Brus'

Barbour's 'Brus'

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss John Barbour's epic poem The Brus, or Bruce, which he wrote c1375. The Brus is the earliest surviving poem in Older Scots and the only source of many of the stories of ...

17 Heinä 202549min

The Evolution of Lungs

The Evolution of Lungs

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the evolution of lungs and of the first breaths, which can be traced back 400 million years to when animal life spread from rock pools and swamps onto land, as some fis...

10 Heinä 202548min

The Vienna Secession

The Vienna Secession

In 1897, Gustav Klimt led a group of radical artists to break free from the cultural establishment of Vienna and found a movement that became known as the Vienna Secession. In the vibrant atmosphere o...

3 Heinä 202554min

Hypnosis

Hypnosis

Ever since Franz Anton Mesmer induced trance-like states in his Parisian subjects in the late eighteenth century, dressed in long purple robes, hypnosis has been associated with performance, power and...

26 Kesä 202545min

Suosittua kategoriassa Historia

olipa-kerran-otsikko
gogin-ja-janin-maailmanhistoria
mayday-fi
huijarit
mystista
rss-ikiuni
tsunami
konginkangas
totuus-vai-salaliitto
rouva-diktaattori
rss-i-dont-like-mondays-2
historiaa-suomeksi
rss-kirkon-ihmeellisimmat-tarinat
rss-subjektiivinen-todistaja
rss-sattuu-sita-suomessakin
sotaa-ja-historiaa-podi
historian-nurkkapoyta
apinan-vuosi
rss-peter-peter
maailmanpuu