Hello everyone and welcome to I Can't Believe that Happened, a short history podcast for kids and curious adults.. Thank you so much for your patience. I know that was a really long break and I am sorry but I think that your patience is going to be worth it because I have been researching for a new season and that is going to be the history of robots.

I am so excited about this. I hope you are too. I was thinking, the history of robots we'd be going back to the 1950s and back to the Jetsons and if any of you were too young for the Jetsons see if you can head over to YouTube and find it. I hope you love Rosie as much as I did when I was a kid. We are actually going to be heading back to ancient Greece, and I know when you think ancient Greece, you are not thinking robots. That's what makes this so cool and I promise you there were robots in ancient Greece, and we have a lot of historical records to prove that.

It's really cool. I cannot wait to introduce you. We're going to be doing this in segments because this is a massive topic. I had no idea how big it was until I started to research. The first thing we are going to do is to look at the mythology of robots, and I know it's a history podcast we work in facts.

However, I think it is important to also understand where these facts came from and mythology like science fiction, like fairy tales is a way that we can dream about what doesn't exist yet. And it is really interesting to see what people dreamed of before they actually became a thing. So we will start with the ancient mythology of robots and then we will be going to go into the ancient world of Greece to meet the actual first robots.

After we will head over to medieval turkey to meet an incredible engineer , artist, and creative person who created some of the most beautiful and amazing and intricate automaton robots. I cannot wait for you to see the elephant clock. That was one of the coolest things I've ever seen and when we say medieval it's really interesting because we don't usually think a beautiful intricate clever witty funny things, but this is absolutely unreal.

If you go over to our website and you go look at the show notes or you go to or YouTube channel you'll get to see I'm going to post as many of these automaton robot videos as I can. Some of these automaton robots still exist, some of them have been built using the engineers notes and of those are stunning.

From the medieval world, we're gonna start moving into the courts the Royal Courts where engineers were patronized by the Royals and created some amazing things. So get ready to meet Leonardo da Vinci's working full-size knight. You will meet some very cool people one of my favorites were going to meet someone who invented roller skates.

Also, by the way, and helped stylize a system that really changed how things went from just one or two movements. To something that almost felt like alive. It's really cool. You'll get to meet all of these people and then we're going to move into the late 1800s and the early 1900s where automatons and robots became part of advertising.

They were in carnivals and boardwalks. They were also something that were sold often as dolls, so if you think about something that's more rudimentary like a music box you opened up and the ballerina spins, that's a very basic automaton, but some of these toys and the late 1800s. Were unreal and amazing what they could do.

So we'll get to meet them and then we're going to go up to the present day because you're going to see how even something that was invented as far back as the medieval era still influences our design today and how even NASA engineers look backwards to create things like the Mars Rover.

So, I hope you join us this is going to be a full year. I am only about three quarters or so I done with my research right now and I'm going to be making some books. I hope you enjoyed. Those and you can always buy them and go over to www.owlandtwine.com website and that's where everything from this podcasts to all of my illustrations, story telling games, and books that I have written and illustrated live.

Please go to the show notes by going to I Can’t Believe That Happened where I'll be posting and collecting as many of these videos as I can find so you can actually see these automaton robots in action. It is really amazing and cool. I hope you subscribed to the Podcast that would be really kind of you and if you have a few minutes and you'd like to do something very kind for the podcast.

I just run this...

Hello everyone and this is our first week of robots the history! Robots, can you tell excited I am? Welcome to I can't believe this happened. We are going to start with ancient Greece and we're going, to begin with, the robot Talos. Links:HephaestusMinosZeusCreteColossus of Rhodes Do You Want To Contribute? Did you find the wrong fact? Do you have the right one? Would you like to let me know what skills you would give your room protection robot? Click here

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For the start of black history month, we are going to head all the way back to the old west to meet a man who has been long thought to be the inspiration behind The Lone Ranger. Take a listen through and if you are familiar with the TV show or watched the latest movie let me know below what you think. Without any dispute Bass Reeves was one of the most feared lawmen of the west.

Born 1838 in Crawford County, Arkansas as a slave. The slave owner was Confederate Colonel George Reeves and during the war. There are conflicting accounts as to what happened but on record, he said to have left to ensure his safety and his freedom.

Bass Reeves escaped into Oklahoma territory where he found help and friendship amongst the Cherokee, Choctaw, Chickasaw, Creek, and Seminole First Nations Tribes. During his time with The First Nations Tribes, he learned the skills that would make him one of the best lawmen of the west. He learned to track, shoot, ride, and fluently speak five First Nations Languages. By the way, if I am using First Nations and Native incorrectly please email me. I did an extensive search but I am open to corrections.

It is said that he left his master but that he went to the Union to fight. Other accounts have him moving to Arkansas to farm and marry Nellie Jennie (and have 11 children). Some accounts say both.

Bass Reeves started as US Marshal in Oklahoma and the Arkansas Territories in 1875. Bass Reeves was never taught reading. He was said to have memorized how the suspect’s name looked on the paper ad was able to match it with the warrant. He was never said to have arrested the wrong person.

He was known for his relentless pursuits of criminals and while shot at many times was said to have never been hit by a bullet. He did come close having both his hat and belt shot off. His jurisdiction territory spanned seventy-five thousand square miles. It was said that when a deputy marshal rode out for a round trip of 800 miles a wagon and a cook who also served as a guard went along. This territory was supposed to be handled by 200 deputies unfortunately according to records only twenty to thirty worked at a time.

In total Bass Reeves accounted for over 3,000 felons using disguises (a fellow criminal hunted and shot at by law enforcement, a woman, or a preacher). Taking them in as they say dead or alive. Though according to the numbers he made sure to state of just over 3,000 he only had to kill 14 and only in self-defense.

After he retired at 67 he spent two years as a city policeman in Muskogee, Oklahoma. During those two years, there were no reported crimes in his new territory.

Historians have an incredible benefit to Bass Reeves working life in that he would often be followed by newspaper reporters who would give eye witness accounts.

If you ever in the neighborhood go pay respects the bridge that crosses the Arkansas River named the Bass Reeves Memorial Bridge.

One of my favorite depictions of Bass Reeves was on a short-lived but amazing sci fi show Timeless.

A thank you to Owlcation and the writer Readmikenow for a huge leg up on the structure of this episode

References:

CNN

The Washinton Post

The Muskogee Pheonix

The Oklahoma City Weekly Times-Journal

National Parks Service

Key words Oklahoma History, Midwest History, Arkansas History

The Washinton Post

The Muskogee Pheonix

The Oklahoma City Weekly Times-Journal

National Parks Service

Key words Oklahoma History, Midwest History, Arkansas History

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Pandora:

The myth of Pandora can be read as a warning against artificial intelligence or AI. As the first AI being created (by Hephaestus) she did define the chaos of what AI can bring.

In Hesiod’s Theogony Pandora is made as a response to Prometheus giving the human’s fire. Zeus seemed to think that was just a step too far in the human power direction and not enough in the all-mighty Zeus and God power line up.

So Zeus goes to his brilliant design and crafting god, Hephaestus, and asks him to create a woman. Depending on what you read she is made of earth or breathed into existence using fire.

The other Gods and Goddesses circle round giving her intelligence, beauty, and of course curiosity. Her name means “all gifted or all giving”. She is also given a box and told NOT TO OPEN IT.

The box contained the entirety of ills that can befall a civilization. Even if you have never heard the myth I bet you can guess what happens. After all of the horrible exits the box (or jar again depending on the reading) there is a tinkering sound. Pandora, I am guessing has a what else could go wrong attitude opens the box again. The tinkering sound is a ball of light which is hope.

So much to unpack here but I think this myth is an important one. Artificial intelligence offers us incredible convenience, progress, and for many in the disabled community's quality of life and communication. But do you think can go wrong? As we invent do we also have a responsibility to see what pitfalls our progress might hold? If we know a cliff is coming perhaps we can create some safety protocols. From our last chapter, you were supposed to think up a robot to do a task. You were going to think of what the task would be and what you would need to program the robot to do and how its’ design would help it in its’ task. Now I would like you to think about what would you do with your robot to make sure it does what you want it to do but does not do what it is not programmed to?

Be sure to send this to us under our contact us at www.owlandtwine.com

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Our first black history month at 10-minute history podcast for kids!

This week we are going to be taking a look at Elizabeth Jennings Grahm the woman who started the desegregation of the New York transportation system in the 1800’s.

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