There was a king in China. His name was Chou Mu Wang. Chou Mu Wang was a king about two thousand five hundred years ago, during the Warring Period. One time, he went hunting. Most kings are bored. They have nothing to do, so they go and kill animals. It's terrible; if they cannot kill humans, then they kill animals. I think they are always training themselves in the art of war. That is a mistake from the beginning. And that's why China has always been, off and on almost all the time during history, always at war with one another or with another neighboring country, or within themselves. Or they go and make war with animals.

So this king was no exception. He went hunting somewhere in the mountains, where there was a mountain called Yen Shan. And then he came back and went back to his palace. On the way home, there was an offering made for the king. The offering was not in the form of a material gift but in the form of a person. Someone gave him a very well-skilled artisan. His name was Yen Shih. And then Mu Wang, the king, asked the artisan to come to him and asked him, "What kind of talent do you have?" Yen Shih, the man who was supposed to be the gift for the king, answered him, saying, "Your Majesty, tell me to do anything, and I will try. Whatever your Majesty wants me to do, I will try it. But I have already invented a machine. It is a robot. I would like to give it to your Majesty to inspect, if you please."

So the king, Mu Wang, said to him, "Of course, of course. Tomorrow, bring it here to me, and I will have a look." And then of course the next day Yen Shih brought the machine to the king. And the king was very surprised and asked the artisan, "Who is following you behind there?" And Yen Shih said, "That is the machine person I have invented." See that? It was so good that the king was fooled into thinking that it was another person following him. Even today, robots don't look like that. (Audience laughs) Not like that yet! Not when we see the "Close Encounters of the Third Kind" or something like that. It looks like our "Hoover" vacuum machine in the dining room, but it doesn't look like a person that can fool us. But this person, two thousand five hundred years ago, more or less, had already invented such a "person." Of course, on other planets there are inventions like this, and it's very common--I've heard this, but there's no guarantee.

And so this "person" was so much like a human being that the king was shocked. He kept looking at the robot, and he saw that this person walked, ran, and bowed his head to the king. Like when we go to see the king or a high personage, we bow to pay respect to them. The robot did exactly like everyone else does, exactly like a human being.

Then when the artisan, the inventor, or we can call him now a scientist, when he just touched something at the chin of the robot, the robot began to sing! It had a very beautiful, precise voice. And then when the inventor raised the robot's hand, he began to dance, in very sophisticated and complicated movements, like a great skillful dancer. Not only that, he could do ten thousand and one, all kinds of entertainment activities, exactly like a very skillful, talented, trained person. Whatever you wanted him to do, the robot could do, and with such skill and precision that the king was very shocked and started to believe that he was a real person.

And then one of his very beloved concubines watched with him, and all the other beautiful maidens in the palace also surrounded the robot. And they all watched in amazement. Then after the robot finished his entertainment program, he even winked. (Audience laughs) He winked, making a kind of flirtatious sign with the beloved concubine of the king. So then the problems began! The robot was so real that the king was very angry. It's like a boy who winks at a beautiful woman with a motive. So the king became racked with anger, and he was very jealous. He wanted to kill both of them--Yen Shih, the man who invented it, as well as the robot. He believed that both of them were real.

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