ISLAMIC AUTOMATION: A READING OF AL-JAZARI’S THE BOOK OF KNOWLEDGE OF INGENIOUS MECHANICAL DEVICES (1206)Gunalan Nadarajan

We are nothing but puppets of kinetic contraptions, mechanical mumbo jumbo and bastardized biology.- me

Rube Goldberg gets his think-tank working and evolves the simplified pencil-sharpener.

Open window (A) and fly kite (B). String (C) lifts small door (D) allowing moths (E) to escape and eat red flannel shirt (F). As weight of shirt becomes less, shoe (G) steps on switch (H) which heats electric iron (I) and burns hole in pants (J). Smoke (K) enters hole in tree (L), smoking out opossum (M) which jumps into basket (N), pulling rope (O) and lifting cage (P), allowing woodpecker (Q) to chew wood from pencil (R), exposing lead. Emergency knife (S) is always handy in case opossum or the woodpecker gets sick and can't work.

AUTOMATA

MECHANICAL DEVICES

RELIGION/DIVINITY

ALGORITHM

KINETIC ART

SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY

Off I fly, careering farIn chase of Pollys, prettier farThan any of their namesakes are—The Polymaths and Polyhistors,Polyglots and all their sisters

- Thomas Moore

Polymaths

A Polymath is a generalist who seeks universal knowledge.The Renaissance Man can also be thought of as a polymath.

List of a few famous polymaths

Leornado Da Vinciprodigious polymath… Painter, sculptor, engineer, astronomer, anatomist, biologist, geologist, physicist, architect, philosopher, humanist

AvicennaPersian physician, pharmacologist, philosopher, metaphysician, aromatherapist, astronomer, chemist, Hanafi jurist and theologian, physicist, scientist, and universalist

Pythagoras mathematician and philosopher

Aristotle physics, metaphysics, poetry, theater, music, logic, rhetoric, politics, government, ethics, biology and zoology

Al-Kwarizmi persian mathematician, astronomer, and geographer

Al-Kindi Arab astronomer, geographer, mathematician, meteorologist, musician, philosopher, physician, physicist, scientist, and politician

Omar Khayyam Persian poet, writer, astronomer, mathematician, philosopher, and skeptic

Thoughts on Gunalan’s Ideas

Untoward Automation(?!!@#$?! ~.~)Submission in Service to God

Machines serving humansAre humans ‘God’ to the machines?

Divine knowledgeKnowledge ending in divinity

Science & Religion

Al-Jazari’s Work (some of it as per article)

Automata serving no purpose(other than)

serving humans(but not completely controlled by them)

and acting on God’s will.(Motive power and Animal power)

Random but some sequential control.

If every instrument could accomplish its own work, obeying or anticipating the will of others.  If the shuttle could weave, and the pick touch the lyre, without a hand to guide them, chief workmen would not need servants, nor masters slaves.

- Aristotle

Hero’s Eolipile

Diana and the Stag, Joachim Freiss

This automaton, in which the goddess Diana, designed in late Mannerist style, is seated on a hollow-bodied stag with a removable head, functioned as a drinking vessel. A mechanism in the base causes the automaton to roll about on a tabletop in a pentagonal pattern and then stop; the person before whom it stopped would have to drain the contents.

Analytical MachineCharles Babbage, mathematician, philosopher, inventor and mechanical engineer

Hindu Myth & Sacred Art & AvataramsDivinity and arts co-exist in Hindu mythology. I have learned in school about kings who were required to be adept in 64 divine arts which I

explain in the next slide.

Krishna and Balarama (Siblings) two ‘avatarams’ of Lord Vishnu who had 10 avatarams in all were supposed to have studied these 64 arts and an

expert in all the mentioned skills.

Note that they call them art and not skill.

Some Hindus think applying the principle of reincarnations of God (avatar) to a surrogate,

serving its human alter ego is like equating yourself to God.

In ‘Reframing Consciousness’ edited by Roy Ascott, Niranjan Shah and Raman Srinivasan echo

similar opinions on avatars and sacred art.

Matsya(Fish) Kuruma(Turtle) Varaha(Boar) Narasimma(Lion) Vamana(Dwarf) Parasurama Rama Balarama Krisha Kalki

1. geetham – singing;

2. vaadhyam – playing on musical instruments;

3.nrithyam – dancing;

4.naaTyam – drama;        

5. aalEkhyam – painting;

6. vi*s*Eshaka-cchEdhyam – painting the face and body with colored unguents and cosmetics;

7. tandula kusuma bali vikaaraa: – preparing auspicious designs on the floor with rice and flowers;      

8. pushpaastharanam – making a bed of flowers;

9. da*s*ana vashanaanga-raagaa: – coloring one’s teeth, clothes and limbs;

10. maNi bhoomikaa karmaa – inlaying a floor with jewels;

11.*s*ayyaa rachanam – covering a bed;

12. udaka vaadhyam – ringing water-pots;

13. udhaka ghaatha: – splashing with water;

14. cithra yOgaa: – mixing colors;

15. maalya grathana vikalpaa: – preparing wreaths;

16. *s*ekhara aapeeda yOjanam – setting a helmet on the head;

17. nEpathya yOgaa: – putting on apparel in a dressing room;

18. karna pathra bhangaa: – decorating the earlobe;

19. sugandha yukthi: – applying aromatics;

20. bhooshana yOjanam – decorating with jewelry;

21. aindhra jaalam – jugglery;

22. kouchumaara yOga: – the art of disguise;

23. hasta laaghavam – sleight of hand;

24. chithra *s*aakaapoopa bhakshya vikaara kriyaa: – preparing varieties of salad, bread, cake and other delicious food;

25. paanaka rasa raagaasava yOjanam – preparing palatable drinks and tinging draughts with red color;

26. soochee vaaya karmaa – needlework and weaving;

27. soothra kreedaa – making puppets dance by manipulating thin threads;

28. veenaa damaruka vaadhyaani – playing on a flute and a small X-shaped drum;

29. prahElikaa – making and solving riddles;

30. pratimaalaa – capping verses, or reciting poems verse for verse as a trial of memory or skill;

31. dhurvaachaka yOgaa:  – uttering statements difficult for others to answer;

32. pusthaka vaachanam – reciting books;

33. naaTika aakhyaayikaa dhar*s*anam – enacting short plays and writing anecdotes.

34. kaavya samasyaa pooraNam – solving enigmatic verses;

35. paththikaa vEthra baaNa vikalpaa: – making a bow from a strip of cloth and a stick;

36. tharku karma, spinning with a spindle;

37. thak*s*aNam – carpentry;

38. vaasthu-vidhyaa – architecture;

39. roupya rathna  pareekshaa – testing silver and jewels;

40. dhaathu vaadha: – metallurgy;

41.  maNi raaga jnaanam – tinging jewels with various colors;

42. aakara-jnaanam – mineralogy;

43. vriksha aayur vEdha yOgaa: – herbal medicine;

44. mEsha kukkuTa laavaka yudhdha vidhi: – the art of training and engaging rams, cocks and quails in fighting;

45. *s*uka *s*aarikaa pralaapanam – knowledge of how to train male and female parrots to speak and to answer the questions of human beings;

46. uthsaadhanam – healing a person with ointments;

47. kE*s*a maarjana kou*s*alam – hairdressing;

48. akshara mushTikaa kathanam – telling what is written in a book without seeing it, and telling what is hidden in another’s fist;

ஆய கைலகௗ் 64 (64 Divine Arts)

49. mlEcchitha kutharka vikalpaa – fabricating barbarous or foreign sophistry;

50.     dhE*s*a bhaashaa jnaanam – knowledge of provincial dialects;

51.     pushpa *s*akaTikaa nirmithi jnaanam – knowledge of how to build toy carts with flowers;

52.     yanthra maathrikaa – composing magic squares, arrangements of numbers adding up to the same total in all directions;

53.     dhaaraNa maathrikaa – the use of amulets;

54.     samvaachyam – conversation;

55.     maanasee kaavya kriyaa – composing verses mentally;

56.     kriyaa vikalpaa: – designing a literary work or a medical remedy;

57.     chalithaka yOgaa: – building shrines;

58.     abhidhaana kO*s*a cchandhO jnaanam – lexicography and the knowledge of poetic meters;

59.     vasthra gOpanam – disguising one kind of cloth to look like another;

60.     dhyootha vi*s*Esham – knowledge of various forms of gambling; (so) aakarsha-kreedaa – playing dice;

61.     baalaka kreedanakam – playing with children’s toys;

62.     vainaayikee vidhyaa – enforcing discipline by mystic power;

63.     vaijayikee vidhyaa – gaining victory;

64.     vaithaalikee vidhyaa – awakening one’s master with music at dawn.

http://srivaishnavam.wordpress.com/2007/10/14/aaya-kalaigal-64/

Heureka Jean Tinguely

Homage to New York (1960) Jean Tinguely

Qn 1: Polymath or dilettante? Is Universal knowledge possible? Were the Hakeems and the Renaissance men truly experts in multiple fields of knowledge?

Qn2: Have algorithms always existed but in different applications and media?

Qn3: Science & Religion. How important is it to artists?

Qn4: Is controlling machines and acting as a creator an obsession for humans? Seems like we’ve been trying to master the art of reproducing ourselves.