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Automata — A Masculine Utopia

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Nineteen Eighty-Four: Science Between Utopia and Dystopia

Part of the book series: Sociology of the Sciences a Yearbook ((SOSC,volume 8))

Abstract

Between 1750 and 1850 the attention of philosophers, natural scientists, and engineers was focused on machines and mechanical movements. The most fascinating creations in the realm of mechanics and Utopia (1) were automata, devices that move by themselves. The greatest achievements in this nature-imitating world were androids, automata simulating human bodies (2). This article concentrates on the hidden meanings of these androids. These walking, talking, writing, and music playing imitations of human beings did not only interest scientists and inventors. They seduced the public in nearly all the European capitals. The exhibition of automata was an important science oriented attraction in the 18th century, and was both amusing and embarrassing.

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Notes

  1. There is a great confusion about the meaning of the word Utopia. In this article I use it in the sense of absurd dream and chimera, the same sense that this word had in the 18th century. It is the century about which the present article is written. For further information see: Raymond Trousson, ‘Utopie et roman utopique’, Revue des Sciences Sociale 155 (1974) 367–378.

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  2. The simulation of the cosmos and of natural phenomena is very old. Egyptian history tells of talking and fortune-telling statues; Heron of Alexandria (285–222 B.C.) built curious theater machines and the myth of the Cypriot king, Pygmalion, who felt in love with the statue he created and which came magically to life through Aphrodite, is well known. In the renaissance singing birds, dabbling brooks, waterfalls, and fountains can still be admired in the machine book of Salomon de Caus (1576–1626) (Utopia mit Springbrunnen und Vögeln, Frankfurt 1615).

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  3. Cabalists, alchemists and occultists were not satisfied with nature imitating machines. They dreamt of procreation without female help. The most famous of these utopia are the medieval Jewish legend of Golem and the Homunculus of Paracelsus. The important difference in the automata of the 18th and 19th century is their spiritual and religious meaning. They are created by the divine himself by help of human beings. Golem was created by rabbis out of mould, water, and a special system of recitations of letters. On his forehead was written ‘emeth’ (truth). When he grew and became too strong the E of ‘emeth’ was crossed off and became ‘meth’ which means ‘dead’. He came from dust and he went back to dust. (To the different meanings of this legend see Gershom Scholem, Zur Kabbala und ihrer Symbolik, Chapter V, ‘Die Vorstellung vom Golem und ihren tellurischen und magischen Beziehungen’, Frankfurt: Suhrkamp, 2nd ed., 1977, pp. 209–261.) The Homunculus of Paracelsus grows in forty days in a phial. Urine, blood and sperm are the materia prima, they are the porters of the human soul. Paracelsus, De natura rerum, 1537.

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  4. Quote by W. E. Peuckert, Gabalia, Berlin: Erich Schmidt Verlag, 1967, pp. 173–179.

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  5. On the other hand one has to distinguish automata and androids from robots. The latter are meant to replace human labor. The word is derived from the Gothic arbaiths, peine, trouble,sorrow and rabotha or robota that in Slav and Czech means ‘to slave’. In robots the utopia of procreation has been dissolved, as Helmholtz pointed out: “Nowadays we no longer attempt to construct beings able to perform an thousand human actions, but rather machines able to execute a single action which will replace that of a thousand humans (Helmholtz, Über die Erhaltung der Kräfte. Cit. after: Silvio A. Bedini, ‘The Role of Automata in the History of Science’, Technology and Culture 5 (1964) 40.

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  6. Most of these automata were lost or destroyed when the wave of interest in them had subsided. Nevertheless in the Conservatoire des Arts et Metiers in Paris one can admire the tympanum playing woman, the mandolin player, an acrobat, a leopard, and other automata. In the museum of Neuchâtel, the creations of Jaquet-Droz can be admired. The only automaton in America is the Philadelphia museum. It is the draughtsman-writer of Henry Maillardet who by mistake was dressed as a girl. The most complete picture of the history of automata is given by Alfred Chapius, Edouard Gélis, Le Monde des Automates, 2 vols., Paris, 1928. Detailed descriptions of the functioning of automata can be found in the catalogue of the exhibition ‚Montres et Bijoux‘of September 1952 in Geneva.

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  7. And the most beautiful pictures can be found in Jean Prasteau, Les Automates, Paris: Gründ, 1968.

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  8. Roland Carrera, Dominique Louseau, Androids: Les Automates des Jaquet-Droz, Lausanne: Scriptar, 1979.

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  9. Eliane Maingot, Les Automates, Paris, 1959.

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  10. Instructive too are the books of John Cohen, Human Robots in Myth and Science, London: Allen and Unwin, 1968

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  11. Peter Gendolla, Die lebenden Maschinen, Marburg/Lahn: Guttandin und Hoppe, 1980.

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  12. There are personal links between androids and industrial devices. Vaucanson, for instance, was a member of the Academy of Science in France (1740) and director of French silk manufacturing. He introduced the first elements of mechanical looms before Hargreaves spinning Jenny (1767).

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  13. It must be noted that the duck of Vaucanson only pretended to digest. In reality the duck picks up the corn, which is kept in a receptacle, and in another recepticle some minutes later appears a sort of excretion looking like pap. All these hints and the biography of the life of Vaucanson were given by André Doyen and Lucien Liaigre, Jaques Vaucanson, Mécanicien de Génie, Paris: Presses Universitaires Françaises, 1966.

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  14. Alfred Chapius, op. cit., p. 244. „Monsieur, Tant parfait, que je fut il y a vingt ans, suis-je même encore à cette heure par le grand génie de mon inventeur, et toujours prêt à tous présents, d’écrire tout ce qu’ils puissent désirer. Glorifions donc la Providence de corps et d’esprit, pour qu’elle bénisse le bon dessein de mon créateur, d’oser faire publier an grand monde, mon art, et mes utiles services, par une description générale imprimée, afin que l’on sache, que je sois le premier parfait au monde de cette natur et que je sois encore, malgré tous ses envieux, toujours Monsieur le memeplus fidel Secrétairo. Vienne, le 15 October.“

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  15. Lion Montagnon, Les Jaquet-Droz et leurs Automates, catalogue of the exhibition Montres et Bijoux, op. cit., p. 69. „La musicienne a, plus que ses frères, l’apparence de la vie. Elle tourne la tête de côté et d’autre; elle suit du regard le jeu de ses doigts; sa poitrine se lève, est-ce que respiration, est-ce que émotion? Et lorsque le morceau est terminé, elle remercie son auditoire bien veillant et émerveillé d’une gracieuse révérence.“

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  16. Jean Paul, Gesammelte Werke, ed. by Eduard Berend, Weimar, Personalien vom Bedienten- und Maschinenmann, Vol. 2, 1931, pp. 331–337 (and the first version in Vol. 1. 1927, Der Maschinenmann nebst seinen Eigenschaften). Einfältige, aber gut remeinte Biographie einer neuen angenehmen Frau aus bloßem Holz, die ich längst erfunden und geheiratet, Vol. 1, 1927, pp. 493–520 (cit. as Wooden Woman).

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  17. Jean Paul, Werke, ed. by N. Miller, Munich: Carl Hanser Verlag, Vol. 3, 1961, Titan, 7–831, Vol. 6, 1963, Der Komet, pp. 563–1037.

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  18. E. T. A. Hoffmann, ‚Der Sandmann‘, in Der Automatenmensch, ed. by L. Wawrzyn, Berlin: Wagenbach, 1976, pp. 58–93.

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  19. Villiers de l’Isle-Adam, L’Eve Future, Paris: José Corti, 1977.

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  20. It is amusing to note that a story about Descartes is widespread. Accordingly Descartes constructed himself an android about 1620. Her name was Francine. During a seavoyage she was destroyed by the captain who was afraid of her movements and took her to be a witch. This theme has been adopted by Villiers de 1’Isle-Adam.

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  21. René Descartes, Oeuvres, ed. by Charles Adam and Paul Tannery, Paris: Librairie Philosophique de J. Vrin. Vol. VI, Discours dès la Méthode, 1966. pp. 1–78. Vol. XI, Traité de l’Homme, 1967, pp. 119–215. The main passages are: „Ces hommes seront composez, comme nous, d’une Ame & d’un Corps. (Traité op. al., p. 119.) Nous voyons des horloges, des fontaines artificielles, des moulins, & autres semblables machines, qui n’estant faites que par des hommes, ne laissent pas d’avoir la force de se mouvoir d’elles-mesmes en plusieurs diverses façons; & il me semble que i ne saurois imaginer tant de sortes de mouvemens en celle-ci, que ie suppose estre faite des mains de Dieu, ni lui attribuer tant d’artifice, que vous n’ayez sujet de penser, qu’il y en peut avoir encore davantage. (Traité, op. cit., p. 120.) Then he compares the blood circulation with a clock: „… Ce mouvement que je viens d’expliquer, suit aussi nécessairement de la seule disposition des organs … que fait celui d’un horloger, de la force, de la situation et de la figure de ses contrepoids et de ses roues.“(Discours …, 1966, p. 50.) About the difference between animals and human beings, their possibilities of distinction: „… au lieu que, s’il y en avait qui eussent la ressemblance de nos corps, et imitassent autant nos actions que moralement il serait possible, nous aurions toujours deux moyens très certains, pour reconnaître qu’elles ne seraient point pour cela de vrais hommes. Dont le premier est que jamais elles ne pourraient user de paroles…. Et le second est … qu’elles n’agiraient pas par connaissance, mais seulement par disposition de leurs organes. (Discours, pp. 56, 57.) About the soul he writes: J’avais décrit, après cela, l’âme raisonnable, et fait voir qu’elle ne peut aucunement être tirée de la puissance de la matière, ainsi que les autres choses dont j’avais parlé, mais qu’elle doit expressément être créée; (Discours…, p. 59)

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  22. Julien Offray de la Mettrie, L’Homme — Machine, Leyde, 1748, cit. from La Mettrie. Textes choisis, Paris, Editions Sociales, 1954 pp. 147–189. The principal passages are the following: „Concluons donc hardiment que l’homme est une machine, et qu’il n’y a dans tous l’Univers qu’une seule substance diversement modifié.“(p. 189) The elements of this conclusion are: „Le corps humain est une machine qui monte elle-même ses ressorts: vivante image du mouvement perpétuel.“(p. 154) „… l’âme n’est qu’un principe du mouvement ou une partie matérielle sensible du cerveau, qu’on peut regarder … comme un ressort principal de toute la machine“(p. 179) “…la matière se meut par elle même,,,,“(p. 182) „Penser c’est une propriété de notre machine.“(p. 184) „Posé le moindre principe de mouvement les corps animés auront tout ce qui leur faut pour se mouvoir, sentir, penser, se repentir et se conduire.“(p. 175) On mechanical philosophy see Karl Marx, Friedrich Engels, ‚Die Heilige Familie’, in Gesamtausgabe, Vol. 2, Berlin: Akademieverlag, 1972, pp. 132–139; Pierre-Maxim Schuhl, Machisnisme et Philosophie, Paris: Presses Universitaires Françaises, 1947.

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  23. Villiers de l’Isle-Adam, op. cit., p. 280. „Puisque nos dieux et nos espoirs ne sont que scientifiques, pourquoi nos amours ne deviendraient-ils pas également.“

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  24. “Il devient impossible de distinguer le modèle de la copie. C’est la nature et rien qu’elle ni plus ni moins, ni mieux ni plus mal: c’est l’IDENTITE“,Villiers de l’Isle-Adam, op. cit., p. 277.

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  25. “Ganz natürlich fragen mich die Saturianer: „Welches war denn das wahre Lebensjahrhundert Deines Maschinenmanns? … „… das achtzehnte Jahrhundert oder der Geist des achtzehnten Jahrhunderts“… … „der Leser ist ja eben der —Maschinenmann selber”. Jean Paul, op. cit., pp. 336.

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  26. “Ganz natürlich fragen mich die Saturianer: „Welches war denn das wahre Lebensjahrhundert Deines Maschinenmanns? … „… das achtzehnte Jahrhundert oder der Geist des achtzehnten Jahrhunderts“… … „der Leser ist ja eben der —Maschinenmann selber”. Jean Paul, op. cit., pp. 337.

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  27. „Il est tant de mots vagues et suggestifs, d’une élasticité intellectuelle si étrange!“, Villiers de l’Isle-Adam, op. cit., p. 225. „Oh! Qui donc serait assez étrange, sous le soleil, pour essayer de s’imaginer qu’il ne joue pas la comédie jusqu’à la mort?“(p. 226) „Improviser! … s’écria Edison: vous croyez donc que l’on provise que ce soit? qu’on ne récite pas toujours?‚ (p. 232)

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  28. The unconscious links between modern economics, technology and libido has been worked out by Herbert Marcuse, One-Dimensional Man. Studies in the Ideology of Advanced Society, Boston Mass.: Beacon Press, 1964; Eros and Civilization, Boston Mass.: Beacon Press, 1955.

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  29. The repression of instincts as process of civilization has been developed by Norbert Elias, Über den Prozess der Zivilisation, Frankfurt: Suhrkamp Verlag, 1977.

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  30. Freud often explains the psychic and the sexual instincts in terms of machine language, especially of mechanic and hydraulic systems. The new French psychoanalysts took this concept over, declaring the whole body a machine — a wishing machine. Gilles Deleuze and Félix Guattari, L’Anti-œcedipe, Paris: Editions de Minuit, 1972.

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  31. It would require a great digression to explain the concept of womanliness as nature. It has been developped by one of the most famous German philosophers, G. F. T. Hegel in Werkausgabe, Frankfurt: Suhrkamp Verlag, 1970, ‚Phänomenologie des Geistes‘, Vol. 3, pp. 327–359; ‚Grundlinien der Philosophie des Rechts‘Vol. 7, pp. 292–339; ‚Entwürfe über Religion und Liebe2010038, Vol. 1, pp. 239–255.

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  32. Barbara Duden, ‚Das schöne Eigentum‘, Kursbuch 47 (1977) 125–143.

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  33. Jos van Ussel, Sexualunterdrückung. Geschichte der Sexualfeindschaft, Gießen: Focus Verlag, 1977.

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  34. Th. Pye, The Nature of Design, London, 1964.

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  35. In this context it is interesting to mention the concept of narcissism of Sigmund Freud, ‘Libido Theory and Narcissism’, Standard Edition, J. Strachey (ed.), London: Hogarth Press, 1963, Vol., pp. 412–431. Lacan interprets the stage of narcissism as the phase of mirror. The person sees his own future image. It is a sort of phantasmal identification with one’s own, born out of the conflict between the incapability of harmonized movements of a baby of six to eighteen months and the anticipation of a complete body-image. These phantasmal images stay important life-long. They help to overcome the dispersed and divided body image. This phantasmal identity becomes more and more rigid and structures the whole mental development. Jaques Lacan, ‚Le stade du miroir comme formateur de la fonction du Je‘, Ecrits I. Paris: Editions du Seuil, 1966, pp. 79–89.

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  36. Villiers de l’Isle-Adam, op. cit., p. 113. „… je prétend pouvoir … faire sortir du limon de l’actuelle Science Humaine un Etre fait à notre image, et qui nous sera, par conséquent, CE QUE NOUS SOMMES A DIEU.“

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  37. Harald Szeeman (ed.), Les machines célibataires, Venice: Alfieri, 1975.

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  38. Jean Paul, op. cit., pp. 498.

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  39. Jean Paul, op. cit., pp. 504.

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  40. Jean Paul, op. cit., pp. 513.

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  41. Jean Paul, op. cit., pp. 515.

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  42. Villiers de l’Isle-Adam, op. cit., pp. 56–75. The most significant passages are the following: „Or, entre le corps et l’âme de miss Alicia, ce n’cétait pas une disproportion qui déconcertait et inqiétait mon entendement: c’était une disparate“, (p. 56) „Mais ici, je vous le dis encore, la non-correspondance du physique et de l’intellectuel s’accusait constamment et dans les proportions paradoxales.“(p. 65)

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  43. E. T. A. Hoffmann, op. cit., p. 77.

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  44. Villiers de l’Isle-Adam, op. cit., p. 50. „… j’ai peut-être, un moyen de vous guérir … par la science?“

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  45. Jean Paul, op. cit., p. 494

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  46. Villiers de l’Isle-Adam, op. cit., pp. 235–278

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  47. E. T. A. Hoffmann, op. cit., pp. 82.

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  48. E. T. A. Hoffmann, op. cit., pp. 83.

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  49. Villiers de l’Isle-Adam, op. cit., p. 273. “De nos jours, les femmes bien élevées ont acquis un regard unique, mondain, convenu, et, vraiment, charmant (c’est le mot), où chacun trouve l’expression qu’il désire et qui leur permet de penser à leurs soucis intimes, sous un air d’attention profonde.“

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  50. This is expressed by E. T. A. Hoffmann, op. cit., p. 73. „Die Nebler und Schwebler hatten bei ihr böses Spiel; denn ohne viel zu reden, sagte ihnen der helle Blick, und jenes feine ironische Lächeln: Lieben Freunde! wie möget ihr mir denn zumuten, daß ich eure verfließenden Schattengebilde für wahre Gestalten ansehen soll, mit Leben und Regung?“

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  51. John Cohen, op. cit., pp. 133–137.

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  52. Peter Gendolla, op. cit., pp. 198–218.

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  1. 146 Bd. Camelinat, 92240, Malakoff - Paris, France

    Christine Woesler de Panafieu

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  1. Christine Woesler de Panafieu
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  1. Dept. of the History of Science, Harvard University, Cambridge, Mass., USA

    Everett Mendelsohn

  2. European Centre for Social Welfare Training and Research, Austria

    Helga Nowotny

  3. University of Vienna, Austria

    Helga Nowotny

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© 1984 D. Reidel Publishing Company

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de Panafieu, C.W. (1984). Automata — A Masculine Utopia. In: Mendelsohn, E., Nowotny, H. (eds) Nineteen Eighty-Four: Science Between Utopia and Dystopia. Sociology of the Sciences a Yearbook, vol 8. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-009-6340-5_7

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-009-6340-5_7

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