Starting december twenty eighth on t w. Hes the stuff of legend. From jewish myth and folklore as old as the ages. Made of clay dust or soil hes an artificial being brought to life by human hands hes a helper a companion and above all a guardian but whenever he sets out to discover what he is he runs amok. The image of this mythical being has evolved over the centuries. But now in the age of robotics. This legendary super hero suddenly seems within reach of becoming a reality. The gollum. In mine again about my generations perception of the gollum as a doll a large powerful being from the late middle ages stemmed from the characters militant portrayal in full vegas movie. And via have to. The goal of how he came into the world was one of the most successful german silent films of all time. The early horror movie has influenced the way the mythical figure is perceived to this day. When making the iconic film director and lead actor paul vacant and drew from a tale of old prague. The secret of the golem it is said is still hidden within the citys old new synagogue. At the end of the sixteenth century during the reign of rudolph the second not far from the vault of a river pragues jewish quarter and its community were enjoying a golden age of relative security. It was enough to know that they were protected by the hapsburg holy roman emperor. But evil never sleeps. Rumors spread that the jews of prague were using the blood of christian children to perform their rituals. The intent was clear the jews were to be forced to abandon their homes in the city. With no salvation in sight one man rabbi yehuda live had an idea he believed would help his community face this calamity. Live was progs chief rabbi and leading scholar of the talmud and cobb a la the mystical traditions of judaism. Even today people come to pay homage at his grave and progs famous old jewish cemetery. Desire to this rabbi yehuda live known as the mo harle in hebrew a great sage is said to be the first who created a column to defend the to see or hear you. This garbage is given to my brother i love takes two of his peoples down to the vault of where theres a whole lot of mud holes in lucky shapes the column from this mud he does this with his pupils performing a ritual found in earlier sources he and his pupils walk around and around the rudimentary form of the column went on and then it happens the golem slowly rises from the earth and goes reddish light appears along with him he rises ever higher and goes rather still then begins to breathe its not like god breath isnt blown into him instead he sits up and then stands he is very big and they already figured he would be naked so they brought clothing along for this new person and they gave him a name. Of course they dont call him call and hes called joseph so they take him along and then tell him what he has to do with it first of all hes supposed to sit on a well behaved out in the synagogue and when they need him theyll call for him but when called from. The. I will thank you because i am marvelously may i well know that you all work so wonderful while i was being made in the darkness and woven in the depths of the earth my body was not hidden from you your i saw how i came to be. Your meat with no god but if. Adam praises god in this song the most prominent man in the human race leads us to the origins of the myth of the golem. A small the word column first appears in the hebrew bible. Its in the verse to be exact in which adam thanks god for seeing him in the soil as he came into being. Offered prayers go out to me in the car. Big ears did bad deeds. So. We sell because the nanny. According to the story adam is gods creation but what is the golem then a kind of brother how does he come to be. An indication and they lived through bible god brings adam forth from the earth and after he has been created from dust god breathed life into him. And i was the procedure must be exactly the same for the call on board the gullah must be made of earth he is of the earth the only question is how do we breathe life into him. Are there directions for this a formula. Hence can be found in the book of creation one of the most important texts of karbala. Mainly. To describe the creation of the union. By the power. Mainly of. The alphabet. Soup and you have to mention if a person wants to make a call on him all he needs is the torah and the person has to know the many possibilities of combining the letters and the torah and has to know how to combine the letters to apply them to create a column. And that knowledge is a mysterious art. This. Is kennedy to know the tables but the tables arent enough light there are also directions for it but the big problem is that not everyone can do it. Here and thats because humans are sinners and sinners people cannot replicate god like acts or acts of god including how god made man. Wouldnt i dont mention stuff. This. Is the golem saga takes us to. Forms and germanys rhineland in the early Twentieth Century the city was home to a jewish mystical ascetic movement called the pious of ashkenaz be damned if they were very sure of their own capabilities that they were truly righteous but they could do good what god desired and that they were complying with all the commandments and. Thats why the achieved what others could not. Do or think thats where we for the first time we find accounts of rituals for creating a column that were also successful of what occurred. At least according to the legend its an inspiring magical moment a ceremony that brings and now animate matter to life. Is the show by it both things are surely present and the desire to create a gollum the desire to be closer to god and the desire to be gods equal midcourt to miss him. So. It ultimately the creation of a column reflects the human desire for the power to create. Shot from croft. The letters it turns out or everything you know i say it and it appears in the original creation story of the bible as well there is the breath and words that are associated with that actually very far mation of everything. And the original golem story am it is written on the forehead and then the rabbi knows that when the time comes that the golem is uncontrollable he can erase that all f. N. And the golem is met its dead. The power is in the letters and that means truth met means dead. And some my golem is meant he is just made of memes and thomas. While rabbi love made his golem out of clay. California artist Joshua Barber nel has used wood the Creative Process somehow feels somewhat spiritual in the sense that its connecting with things that dont exist yet that arent physical and then making them material in some way. The sort of mystical art of it. The power and that energy and that force that was being harnessed to bring something that was on an earth and not alive to life. And that is a form of alchemy. You know and thats again sort of why all projects feel somewhat like theyre gone but this one even more so because of what the subject matter is. The golem is an extension of my own sort of wrestling with what it is to live in a modern contemporary society. To some goal in my mind is what moved me about the golan from the start was his function as a guardian that at a time of great need a people can create a being by harnessing the power of their faith mysticism and the power of kabbalah to protect them against unfounded accusations and harassment. And an offshoot. Cinnabon im repeatedly surfaces as a key figure in times of crisis like now when certain questions on identity are coming to a head. At the start of the Twentieth Century the jewish communities of Eastern Europe were targeted by pogroms. The golem became a being that evoked a sense of cultural identity offering protection through his strength. To god its precisely this type of column that appears in paul bacon this film. It was a strategy of deterrence. With this creature the rabbi proved to the Christian Emperor and his court that the jewish people were no longer defenseless. And then never been a rabbi no have created the column because the emperor was threatening the jews of pronk with expulsion whats interesting chis not. All or. Go back there yeah. But what is the role of the golem when the threat is extermination rather than expulsion. As the holocaust unfolded there was widespread longing for the golem but the savior failed to materialize. The yiddish writer opera hum razan dedicated a poem to the gollum. Awake it is high time once again those people have grown wild and all the beasts bellow in their cages. Awake oh call them with your heavy tread go around and raise the prisons in every country and every town. And knock down wall upon wall of the palace where evil resides. And with your divine smile liberate the suffering people. I was stunned this is interesting that in this context he does not a paris a defender of the jews and. Perhaps its a kind of acknowledgement that there was actually no entity within the community that could have would it off this threat not at that time was. Inside. In his novel in title. Wrote something that cannot die is stocking this district. Discounted element of fear is the main element when it comes to the gollum is the fear of the dark of uncertainty which can be no negotiation with someone who has great strength but who doesnt speak and its intellectually inaccessible. At the start of the Twentieth Century the column found a following in popular non jewish culture. But the creature was a fearsome figure rather than the guardian. This new cult status peaked at the time of Gustav Meiring stark novel. From one thousand nine hundred fifteen. It was on my rinks novel is the most famous version of the column of all time. Pogs illustrations were just as popular. Or if you can shine approx column clearly has asian feature the eyes are half closed lids its apparent immediately that the character is something to be afraid of an oddity. The image of a frightening creature was present in the literature painting and film of that period. Paul begun to depicts the golems creation as a mix of black magic and jewish mysticism its reminiscent of bounced pact with the devil. This which was an unmistakable hints that of course this is one thousand to the supernatural but there is also a potentially demonic aspect to it as well. Dark forces are what a the rabbi rather than the power of the letters. In the scene is and they seem depicts the ambivalence of the whole film which has anti semitic overtones but also playful fanciful moments. Its the little christian girl who vanquishes the golem with childish innocence. Because all the books in the tradition thats the way many people use the column today theyre presumably not very interested in the jewish element of it instead the column is a universal symbol of horror and airiness card. This wide eyed expression is far more than an affirmation of identity it set standards for a whole genre the horror movie. But its not only the characters appearance thats inspired artists its the. You know whether an artificial being can have an inner life a soul. Director for its long explored this in his iconic film metropolis. When this maria is first introduced as a robot which is a really beautiful robot it comes and they say its just like a human every way but its kind of a soul and then literally give it a soul to bring it to life in a sort of magical way. Self that it was a human or a robot. This key character moves through the film in a state of perpetual doubt. Who am i am i a human am i a robot and if i am a robot why do i feel what i feel where do i come from i want to vary. The color up and dont you. Know. Its me with another. The old gold a myth humans create an artificial companion and then lose control over it has also provided fodder for t. V. Series. Real new ones real humans naturally plays with the threat to make systems but not and thats whats nice about it through brutal armed military conquest that would immediately provoke a negative response instead it takes place in an insidious and subtle way. Such catherine do. They could look out for. Molotov assault that. District to do. Because of all the molding. In the digital age the golem has evolved into an avatar the human alter ego. Theres this great film called surrogates you buy a surrogate in the store and slip into it that works really well anyone whos tried three d. Virtual reality knows that it takes just a few minutes for you to feel at home in a virtual world. I knew from just humans. With the grace and beauty of the human with most People Living their long stream of sentencing our world has become a safer place take a senior step chair. Of a. The golem legend even served as inspiration for johann but gone from good when he was writing the sorcerers apprentice. Gones for once the old magician now all his ghosts will do my bidding. On two legs stand gravely. Have a head besides. With your pale now bravely off and do take strides. Master come to my assistance. The wrong i was in spirits calling. For now i find them galling. In mice and men stories the column is a character thats created to help with household chores. So hes a helper for humans from the stories ive read it did things like when i was asked to help with carrying water it picked up the whole well and carried it out because it was too strong and when i was asked to bring firewood it brought the whole trieste including the roots. Film did such a fantastic job that. The golem simply isnt smart enough to really be a true helper. These characters always seem to be heading straight for disaster not too many years ago. A moment to create children and young people. When you wanted to say. To someone. You were in egypt you were golem in the movie thats the way it is in the vague in a film of course for gollum starts to destroy everything he starts to destroy the ghetto and attack people and to lay everything to waste. The climax of the movie comes when the golem turns against the people hes supposed to protect. On thats the tension naturally the extreme there what happens when a creation a creature or something manmade is released and it has tains a degree of independence and if you like in the sorcerers apprentice people overestimate their characters abilities it becomes overwhelming and then turns against its master. Even back in old prague rabbi lerner couldnt keep the gollum under control. You probably cant allow of being like that to become the way you would vision it instead when it develops its own consciousness through imitation thats when weve already lost control in the moment in the moment when the column starts to discover itself and ask yourself who am i really. Frightening i ask for example am i a jew. Do i belong to these people or ten people who are needed to form a community for the service in the synagogue and do i have sexual needs can i love a woman. Coming under fire. In vegas bill the golem seduces the rabbis daughter and ends up tangled in a web of previously unknown emotions. You mere the more the golem becomes like a human the greater his destructive potential thats when things can go really horribly wrong or guns go by and she figures. This destruction is ultimately after all just a reflection of our sin which we committed by doing this because we wanted to compete with god. Is naturally a warning there are two years if you dont create him in the first place the nothing like this can happen to you. Californias Silicon Valley is a hotbed of innovation and rapid technological progress. Every day hundreds of creators are bus to work many from nearby san francisco. So they say only a rabbi can make a call them and so only one group of people have this weapon because it could be considered to be a weapon and therefore it can be a guard and tear and. But with a rope and thats different because anybody can make them. These days theyre not inventing guardians instead theyre designing helpful robots that are supposed to become fully fledged family members and display a high level of social skills introducing the worlds first family robot say hi do you go thank you. Helps everyone now throughout their day hes the worlds best camera. Hes a hands free help you can talk to him and hell talk to you back so you dont have to skip a beat. Governments are seen as an economic driver big corporations are seeing drivers. Pushing forward and saying you know all the things all the good things. Looking after children. The Robotics Company boston dynamics has introduced a good specimen known as big dog. Its designed for military use its a clear minefield recover. And then the big companies. To extraordinary. Intelligence surveillance and Security Systems with detecting tracking suppression is designed to replace human. Limitations. Not only on borders but critical location such as your. Bases and military. The. Notion of the technology. You know robots could be just. Like soldiers talked about soldiers they talked about the notion that but the soldiers. Because they wont seek revenge. They wont. Develop the. Its the latest in technology. That seems to have a grip on his strength and personality. Hes not easily provoked and stays focused on. His task. Can humans control the gholam of today. One of the one of the problems with with the whole fast Rapid Development of robotics is that its on regulated and there are no National Policies and more concerning is theres no attempt to create any. Could humans actually end up melding with machines. Googles engineering director ray kurzweil says transhumanism is a Boundless Research field create bodies that are Technology Create virtual bodies in Virtual Reality that Virtual Reality will be as realistic as real reality the virtual bodies will be yours tell them convincing is real bodies. Thats hard to do the idea today is that Artificial Human beings will really be created but to do what Services Sources for spare parts or to become better people than we are. Its precisely this vision that director dominic graf takes as the premise of his Science Fiction film gollum the return. They call him dr gollum is an amalgamation of notions about an ideal figure how could we be how much of our brain capacity do we use how much do we use our capacity to make moral judgments all that plays into the image of the figure. On the other it was that were reaching the point where we need to reevaluate our robbers simple moral thats not so that out thats not something the good lord intended weve got to differentiate a bit and say ok we understand its not allowed but were going to do it anyway so how do we regulate it with them because on the. Beyond is a product of the neuro <