Greek gods or just human: Stephen Fry draws parallels at Jaipur Literature Festival

Jaipur, Jan 16 (PTI) The gods are now crumbling statues, there is nothing on Mount Olympus, and in another 1,000 years, humans may also not be here, British writer-actor Stephen Fry said while drawing a parallel between the gradual fall of the Greek pantheon and the invention of artificial intelligence.

Fry, who grew up reading Greek myth at a time when boys of his age were interested in “football or girls”, was speaking at the 19th Jaipur Literature Festival in a session on his latest book, “Odyssey”, a retelling of Greek poet Homer’s epic poem about Odysseus' arduous journey back home to Ethaca after the Trojan war.

The author said that just the way Prometheus created humans, the modern humans created artificial intelligence – both initially meant to be servile entities.

"When Prometheus created mankind, Zeus said, ‘these are wonderful, they can worship us and sacrifice to us and they can entertain us and love us. They can be our pets. But Prometheus, one thing you mustn’t do is give them fire. Because if you give them fire, they will develop technology and they will be as good as we are.’” The fire also meant “the creative spark, the sense of creativity and the ability to do what gods could do, to make things, to be different from the animals”.

“Once mankind had fire, once we had fire inside us and the fire of technology, we slowly stopped needing gods and we started talking to each other and organising our lives according to our rules, rather than obeying the gods,” the “V For Vendetta” actor noted.

With the invention of artificial intelligence, he said, humans are now in the same position as the gods, having created an entity that obeys our instructions.

“Some of us say we must not give them fire, we must not give these entities self-consciousness, the ability to think and feel and want for themselves, or the ability to be independent of us, because if we do, they may get rid of us.

“The gods are now crumbling statues and if you go to Mount Olympus, there is nothing there. And it may be that in another 1,000 years we won’t be here, and maybe it has all happened before,” the 68-year-old said.

The conversation, featuring Simon Goldhill and Josephine Quinn, also delved on the role of gods in the aftermath and horrors of the Trojan war. Fry said it can be looked at by thinking of the gods “as part of humanity”.

One born 2,000 years ago could feel that since the world is extraordinarily beautiful, majestic, and slightly terrifying, its creator too would be the same.

“...But you also notice that the world is unfair and capricious and cruel and random, so the gods must be like that too. So the gods you create are not perfect, they are like us and so we have instincts and impulses and addictions like Dionysus, and purity, brilliance, harmony and reason like Apollo,” Fry said.

The qualities of ability to command, carrying a majestic glory can be found in Zeus, whereas Hera represents the sense of propriety, matrimony and the beauty of family.

"And these qualities quarrel within ourselves and if you look at our society, if you look at the news, you can see the Olympian gods fighting each other. Our sense of justice fighting our sense of need and want and greed,” the author said.

Fry's “Odyssey” is the fourth and last book in a series of retelling of Greek mythology that includes “Mythos”, “Heroes”, and “Troy”.

The five-day literary festival is hosting more than 350 celebrated authors and scholars, including Booker Prize winner Banu Mushtaq, chess legend Viswanathan Anand, Sahitya Akademi Award winner Anuradha Roy, veteran film critic Bhawana Somaaya, and authors Manu Joseph, Ruchir Joshi, and KR Meera.

The festival will conclude on January 19. PTI MAH BK BK