By Ayden Saeki
The ancient Greek poet Homer was talking about AI long before we could even conceive of what that was, says Classics scholar Brett M. Rogers, of the University of Puget Sound.
In a recent talk at UC Santa Barbara called “Cyber-Dogs and the Limits of Recognition in Homer’s Odyssey and Beyond,” Rogers said Homer’s epic may hold answers to modern technological dilemmas.
“How and why is the ancient past so important to the visions of our future?” said Rogers during the lecture, which was hosted by the UCSB Interdisciplinary Humanities Center and the Department of Classics. Rogers invited his audience to consider how epic poetry might hold answers to modern technological issues.
Brett M. Rogers, Classics scholar at the University of Puget Sound, connected concepts of Homer’s epic poem The Odyssey to the emerging technology of Artificial Intelligence at a recent talk.
Rogers is a professor of Greek and Latin Studies who specializes in Greek tragedy, myth, and science fiction. He shared one scene in The Odyssey that may be one of the first literary explorations of artificial intelligence.
It starts when Odysseus arrives at a palace guarded not by a grand army, but by immortal, golden dogs who “are ageless and lifeless.” Rather than asking if these dogs think, Rogers posed a question: Can machines convincingly play the part of real, feeling beings?
In The Odyssey, the answer seems to be no. These Phaeacian “cyber-dogs” are beautiful but hollow. They fail to recognize Odysseus, fail to protect, and ultimately fail their purpose as guardians. Rogers suggests they might reflect the Phaeacians themselves, who are a society rich in technology and lavish in lifestyle, but lacking in emotional depth.
His analysis isn’t limited to dogs. The Phaeacians in this tale also use self-driving ships that navigate by sensing the “minds of men.” They’re ancient equivalents to modern AI navigation systems.
Classics professor Brett M. Rogers from the University of Puget Sound visited UCSB f to discuss the connection between AI and his field of study, classic literature.
“If we’re going to talk a lot about what it means to be human,” Rogers said, “we should probably figure out the changing meaning of being humans.” And for Homer, that meaning wasn’t to be found in shiny machines.
Unlike the cyber-dogs, the real dogs in the poem do their job. At the hut of Eumaeus, Odysseus is nearly attacked by barking dogs who sense an intruder. Later, when the goddess Athena appears in disguise, the dogs — not the humans — are the ones who spot her.
In the most emotionally powerful moment of the story, Argos, Odysseus’s abandoned and dying dog, sees through his master’s disguise, wags his tail, and dies.
That moment, Rogers argued, is the poem’s true climax, not because a war was won or due to vengeance, but because of human recognition.
“There’s no substitute for the real thing,” Rogers said, pointing to how emotion, memories, and connection, qualities no machine has, are at the heart of what makes us human.
He ended the talk with a compelling thought: What if The Odyssey itself is a kind of training program? A kind of poetic lesson meant to teach us how to feel, connect with others, and care.
Maybe Homer was doing more than telling a story, maybe he was showing us how to be better humans — even in the digital age, Rogers suggested.
Ayden Saeki is a third-year UC Santa Barbara student who is majoring in Communication. She covered this event for her Digital Journalism course.