Vad är det första utseendet på humanoida robotar i science fiction?

Jag tror att det beror på vad du menar med "artificiell intelligens" - det finns mycket gamla historier som involverar automat som liknar människor och verkar ibland ganska intelligent, som Talos från den forntida grekiska berättelsen om Jason och Argonauterna (eller några av de andra antika grekiska berättelserna om automatisk listning här ), men det kan vara svårt att skilja magi och fantasi från tekniken i sådana historier. Även efter de vetenskapliga och industriella revolutionerna verkar några av de tidigaste historierna om intelligent automatik vara mer fantastiska än vetenskapliga fiktiva, som 1814-berättelsen "Automata" av fantasikonskrare E. T. A. Hoffmann som kan läsas online här . Ett tidigt exempel som verkar mer naturvetenskapligt vetenskapligt är historien om "Mr Eisenbrass" från en 1848-fråga av Scientific American , som du hittar på den sista sidan av #

A visitor who writes to the Augsburgh German Gazette, was invited with a friend to visit the Doctor's Sanctum. They beheld him seated at a key board similar to that of a piano forte and nearly in the centre of the room was a fashionably dressed young man, whom the Doctor introduced as a Mr. Eisenbrass, who wished the visitors good morning, and re­mained standing until they were seated. At first the conversation was upon the ordinary topics of the day-Mr. Eisenbrass joined with an occasional remark. but to which the Doctor paid very little attention, and kept amusing himself with the keys of the instru­ment, at which he was seated yet without producing any sound. This surprised the vi­sitors, and one said, Doctor your instrument does not seem inclined to be musical at pres­ent. This brought a laugh from the Doctor, which was echoed by Mr. Eisenbrass, in such an unearthly and comical manner that the visitors had to laugh also, although they felt the laugh to be at their own expense. As soon as the visitors became calm the Dr. rose from his seat, and taking them calmly by the hand said, "Pardon me, my dear friends for having played an innocent prank upon you.—Mr. Eisenbrass is the Automaton I invited you here to see; and being the first who has seen it, I could not resist a sort of paternal desire of showing it off, as fond parents always do their first born children.

Även om man läser den här historien är det inte klart om herr Eisenbrass faktiskt har någon oberoende intelligens - det kan vara att när doktorn trycker på nycklarna på tangentbordet väljer han det exakta svaret som Eisenbrass ger, i motsats till bara ge automaten några allmänna riktningar som "gör snyggt småtal".

För en annan tidig kandidat finns Auguste de Villiers de L'Isle-Adams roman L'Éve Future (Morgondag) från 1886, som beskrivs i denne artikeln det låter som om android har viss självständig intelligens trots att den är programmerad att vara servil, lite som en Stepford Wife eller Buffybot :

Since Alicia Clary—and by extension, all women—has proven herself unworthy of Lord Ewald's love, Edison will instead create for his friend a perfect specimen, the Eve of a new race of womanhood, “a combination of exquisite substances. . .[that make up] artificial flesh." A robot with Alicia's face, body, and mannerisms, but with a personality designed to cater to Ewald's every whim: “an Imitation Human Being, if you prefer” (p. 61). Edison implies that his creation will be as fully real as Alicia herself: “Her operation will be a little more dependent on electricity than that of her model; but that’s all” (p. 69). She is not the illusion of a woman, but the manifestation of the feminine ideal, mechanized and subject to male control.

Men den här översynen verkar återigen föreslå en viss tvetydighet om huruvida denna android har verkligen en egen artificiell intelligens (och om den gör det, om det är rent tekniskt eller övernaturligt):

The great mystery of the book--how exactly Hadaly works--though it is elaborated upon at great length, is never clear. One moment, Hadaly is merely a glorified doll with a phonograph and a "central cylinder" inside dictating pre-recorded conversations and movements which Ewald will be able to choose by manipulating push-buttons hidden in her jewelry. But as she converses with both Ewald and Edison, Hadaly appears to be a fully independent and intelligent being, able to speak and act on her own. Then Edison indicates that Hadaly is operated remotely through a combination of electricity and telepathy by a woman kept in a mystical state by a combination of hypnosis and catatonia, and then there is a suggestion that Hadaly is in fact a sort of incarnation of a spirit descended into the world for the purpose either of leading Ewald to a higher plane, or else, perhaps, damning him to hell--and this spirit may or may not be the same person as the aforementioned catatonic telepath. The book seethes with the sense that a higher, fantastical world is ready any moment to burst in on the mundane world; this sense reaches its climax in a goosebump-raising speech of Hadaly to Ewald at the climax, in which she describes her true nature...or perhaps plays an elaborate ruse. It is tantalizingly unclear whether Hadaly merely contains a sophisticated recording of one woman, or of two, or whether she in fact contains the soul of a woman, or merely its imprint, or whether she is something else entirely, or whether she is one thing with the potential to be another.

En annan kvinnlig android byggd för att vara en fru kan hittas i "En kvinna som är tillverkad att beställa" (1895), tillgänglig online here . Intressant var den här av en kvinnlig författare, Alice W. Fuller; det kritiserar tanken att en fru borde vara helt angenäm och aldrig uttrycka några självständiga tankar och visa att den sexistiska mannen som trodde att han skulle vara lyckligare med en sådan fru, blir slutligen uttråkad och irriterad mot henne och vill ha en riktig kvinna som tänker på sig själv . Det är åter lite oklart om den "elektriska fruen" i berättelsen även har en begränsad artificiell intelligens, eller om den bara svarar genom att spela upp olika konservativa fraser.

En annan kvinnlig android-as-fru-historia, Ernest Edward Kellett's "The New Frankenstein" från 1899, tycks innebära en teknisk intelligens som kan ge svar på frågor som inte är förinspelade eller ges till det av en människa (eller mänsklig själ), se beskrivningen här :

Ernest Edward Kellett's "The New Frankenstein" trumped Edison's accomplishments—in fiction, at least. In it an inventor, Arthur Moore, develops an "anti-phonograph": "a triumph of civilisation" that, in the words of the narrator, can "give the appropriate answer to each question I like to put!" Like Edison's, Moore's instrument is fitted out with two tubes, a receiver (or "ear") and a speaker, from which emerges a "sweet and beautifully modulated feminine voice." He installs the anti-phonograph into "a creature that will guide herself, answer questions, talk and eat like a rational being, in fact, perform the part of a society lady."