Sublime Dreams of Living Machines: The Automaton in the European Imagination

Due out late in February of 2011 is a most intriguing book by Minsoo Kang entitled Sublime Dreams of Living Machines: The Automaton in the European Imagination. The book explores the Western world's fascination with automata in order to better understand ourselves as humans.

From the book's press release:

Kang tracks the first appearance of the automaton in ancient myths through the medieval and Renaissance periods, marks the proliferation of the automaton as a central intellectual concept in the Scientific Revolution and the subsequent backlash during the Enlightenment, and details appearances in Romantic literature and the introduction of the living machine in the Industrial Age. He concludes with a reflection on the destructive confrontation between humanity and machinery in the modern era and the reverberations of the humanity-machinery theme today.

That is an impressive scope of inquiry! This book is sure to be a fascinating read for anyone interested in automata.

Here is where you can get the book: Sublime Dreams of Living Machines: The Automaton in the European Imagination.

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