In the 17th, 18th and 19th centuries, the west struggled with these questions through mechanical people called 'automata'. These mechanical dolls seemed to express qualities of human awareness and experience–both the rational (mechanical) and irrational (what's that?!). At the beginning of the industrial revolution people asked the question 'What makes us human?' Is it a feeling, a behavior, a body?
Philosophers ask this question, as do many writers. Early cinema was immediately interested in how a new technology could tell stories about how humans have externalized consciousness in various forms– as machines, as work, as love, as monsters.
