Science fiction writers have used the possibility
of intelligent machines to advance the fantasy
of intelligent nonhumans, as well as to
make us think about our own human characteristics.
Jules Verne in the nineteenth century
and Isaac Asimov in the twentieth are the best
known, but there have been many others including
L. Frank Baum, who gave us the Wizard
of Oz. Baum wrote of several robots and described
the mechanical man Tiktok in 1907, for
example, as an “Extra-Responsive, ThoughtCreating,
Perfect-Talking Mechanical Man …
Thinks, Speaks, Acts, and Does Everything but
Live.” These writers have inspired many AI researchers.