The first of a three part radio series, the programme charts the history of robots, or automata, since ancient times. It draws the distinction between robots, something mechanical, and AI, which seems to be something more, something nebulous by comparison, something that we have yet to evaluate properly. Robots, without the AI component, that is to say, constitute mirror mechanical images of us humans. But, without something extra, without mind, the programme considers if they can be, and have been thought of as, our slaves; as zombies, are they perhaps acceptable in that role? The more we interact with them, indeed the more human they appear, the tougher it is, however, to see them in that way. That is the subject of part 2.
Link to programme: http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p052y9wv
