As early as Homer, more than 2,500 years ago, Greek mythology explored the idea of automatons and self-moving devices. By the third century B.C., engineers in Hellenistic Alexandria, in Egypt, were building real mechanical robots and machines. And such science fictions and historical technologies were not unique to Greco-Roman culture.

早在2500多年前的荷馬時(shí)代，希臘神話(huà)就探索了機(jī)器人和自動(dòng)移動(dòng)裝置的概念。到公元前三世紀(jì)當(dāng)時(shí)，在希臘化的埃及亞歷山大，工程師們正在建造真正的機(jī)械機(jī)器人和機(jī)器。這樣的科幻小說(shuō)和歷史技術(shù)并不是古希臘羅馬文化所獨(dú)有的。

Ancient robots and automatons
Hindu and Buddhist texts describe the automaton warriors whirling like the wind, slashing intruders with swords, recalling Ajatasatru’s war chariots with spinning blades. In some versions the robots are driven by a water wheel or made by Visvakarman, the Hindu engineer god. But the most striking version came by a tangled route to the “Lokapannatti” of Burma – Pali translations of older, lost Sanskrit texts, only known from Chinese translations, each drawing on earlier oral traditions.

古代機(jī)器人和自動(dòng)裝置
印度教和佛教文獻(xiàn)描述了自動(dòng)戰(zhàn)士像風(fēng)一樣旋轉(zhuǎn)，用劍刺殺入侵者，回憶起阿賈塔薩魯?shù)膽?zhàn)車(chē)使用旋轉(zhuǎn)的刀刃。在某些版本中，機(jī)器人由水車(chē)驅(qū)動(dòng)，或由印度工程師上帝維斯瓦卡曼制造。但最引人注目的版本是一條通往緬甸“l(fā)okapannatti”的曲折之路——巴利語(yǔ)翻譯的古老的、丟失的梵文文本，只有中文譯本，每個(gè)都借鑒了早期的口頭傳統(tǒng)。

In this tale, many “yantakara,” robot makers, lived in the Western land of the “Yavanas,” Greek-speakers, in “Roma-visaya,” the Indian name for the Greco-Roman culture of the Mediterranean world. The Yavanas’ secret technology of robots was closely guarded. The robots of Roma-visaya carried out trade and farming and captured and executed criminals.

在這個(gè)故事中，許多機(jī)器人制造商“Yantakara”居住在“雅瓦納”的西部，講希臘語(yǔ)的人居住在“羅馬維薩亞”中，這是地中海世界希臘-羅馬文化的印度名稱(chēng)。雅瓦納的機(jī)器人秘密技術(shù)受到嚴(yán)密保護(hù)。羅馬維薩亞的機(jī)器人從事貿(mào)易和農(nóng)業(yè)，并抓獲和處決罪犯。

Robot makers were forbidden to leave or reveal their secrets – if they did, robotic assassins pursued and killed them. Rumors of the fabulous robots reached India, inspiring a young artisan of Pataliputta, Ajatasatru’s capital, who wished to learn how to make automatons.

機(jī)器人制造商被禁止離開(kāi)或透露他們的秘密——如果他們這樣做了，機(jī)器人刺客就會(huì)追捕并殺死他們。關(guān)于這些神奇機(jī)器人的傳言傳到了印度，啟發(fā)了阿賈塔薩魯首都——帕塔利普塔的一位年輕工匠，他想學(xué)習(xí)如何制造機(jī)器人。

In the legend, the young man of Pataliputta finds himself reincarnated in the heart of Roma-visaya. He marries the daughter of the master robot maker and learns his craft. One day he steals plans for making robots, and hatches a plot to get them back to India.

傳說(shuō)中，帕塔利普塔的年輕人發(fā)現(xiàn)自己轉(zhuǎn)世于羅馬維薩亞的中心。他娶了機(jī)器人制造大師的女兒，學(xué)習(xí)他的手藝。一天，他竊取了制造機(jī)器人的計(jì)劃，策劃了一個(gè)陰謀要把機(jī)器人帶回印度。

In one version, the god Visvakarman helped Asoka to defeat them by shooting arrows into the bolts that held the spinning constructions together; in another tale, the old engineer’s son explained how to disable and control the robots. At any rate, Asoka ended up commanding the army of automatons himself.

在其中一個(gè)版本中，維斯瓦卡曼神幫助阿修王用箭射進(jìn)連接旋轉(zhuǎn)結(jié)構(gòu)的螺栓中擊敗了他們;在另一個(gè)故事中，老工程師的兒子解釋了如何禁用和控制機(jī)器人。無(wú)論如何，阿育王最終親自指揮了這支由機(jī)器人組成的軍隊(duì)。

Exchange between East and West
Is this legend simply fantasy? Or could the tale have coalesced around early cultural exchanges between East and West? The story clearly connects the mechanical beings defending Buddha’s relics to automatons of Roma-visaya, the Greek-influenced West. How ancient is the tale? Most scholars assume it arose in medi Islamic and European times.

東西方交流
這個(gè)傳說(shuō)僅僅是幻想嗎?或者這個(gè)故事是圍繞著早期東西方的文化交流而展開(kāi)的?這個(gè)故事清楚地將保護(hù)佛陀遺物的機(jī)械生物，與受希臘影響的西方羅馬維薩亞的機(jī)器人聯(lián)系起來(lái)。這個(gè)故事有多古老?大多數(shù)學(xué)者認(rèn)為它起源于中世紀(jì)的伊斯蘭和歐洲時(shí)代。

I cannot hope to pinpoint the original date of the legend, but it is plausible that the idea of robots guarding Buddha’s relics melds both real and imagined engineering feats from the time of Ajatasatru and Asoka. This striking legend is proof that the concepts of building automatons were widespread in antiquity and reveals the universal and timeless link between imagination and science.

我無(wú)法確定這個(gè)傳說(shuō)的確切日期，但有一點(diǎn)是可信的，那就是機(jī)器人守護(hù)佛陀遺物的想法融合了了阿賈塔薩魯和阿育王時(shí)代真實(shí)和想象中的工程壯舉。這個(gè)驚人的傳說(shuō)證明了建造機(jī)器人的概念在古代很普遍，并揭示了想象力和科學(xué)之間普遍而永恒的聯(lián)系。

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Lee Chen
A careful examination of the Maha Bharata and the Vedas easily reveal the repetitive and incredible descriptions of flying machines (various types of “vimana”).
Archaeological work at Mohenjo Daro reveals a persistent radiation signature and direct evidence of vitrification due to temperatures exceeding 1500 degrees Centigrade. Likely evidence of nuclear weapons variants that ancestors of the current insane persons calling themselves government were just as likely to engage in mass killings and genocide.

仔細(xì)研究《摩訶婆羅多》和《吠陀經(jīng)》，很容易發(fā)現(xiàn)對(duì)飛行機(jī)器(各種類(lèi)型的“維曼那”)重復(fù)而令人難以置信的描述。
莫亨霍·達(dá)羅的考古工作揭示了持續(xù)的輻射特征和溫度超過(guò)1500攝氏度導(dǎo)致玻璃化的直接證據(jù)。核武器變種的可能證據(jù)表明，目前自稱(chēng)政府的精神錯(cuò)亂者的祖先同樣可能參與大規(guī)模屠殺和種族滅絕。

In modern times, we have Skynet in novels and drones, so why would anyone be surprised that robots are described and built by these self-identical groups?

在當(dāng)代，我們?cè)谛≌f(shuō)和無(wú)人機(jī)中有天網(wǎng)，那么為什么有人會(huì)驚訝于機(jī)器人會(huì)由這些自我相同的群體描述和建造呢？

Stan Mrak
logged in via Facebook
Someone in my neighborhood found ancient artificial artifacts buried deep underground her property, which sits on top of a mountain near the end of the Appalachian range. When she had the official state archeological officials inspect them, they told her, “These artifacts are at least 22,000 years old. We can’t officially report them. Don’t tell anyone and please take good care of them.” Why? We all KNOW that humans weren’t around that long ago. The government is afraid that people will find out the truth about our human existence here.

Joe Dirk（回復(fù)樓上）
Absolutely. And we wouldn’t want to disparage Mr. Columbus by revealing that the Vikings reached our shores long before he did!

當(dāng)然。我們也不想揭穿哥倫布先生，據(jù)說(shuō)維京人早在他到達(dá)我們的海岸之前就到了！