As far as I can remember, my first counter with the concept of automatons was through the movie A.I. Artificial Intelligence (2001), directed by Steven Spielberg. At the time I was around 8 years old, and I remember not being able to sleep and even after I fell asleep out of exhaustion having a nightmare that I can vaguely recall. The feeling of uncanny (which I shall discuss more in detail later in the essay) had hit me so hard that it left in my mind almost like that of a mark of a trauma. Ever since, when I encounter automatons whether in the context of academics or entertainment, I am still haunted by my first feeling of uncanniness.

This essay aims to put into clear words of where my continued fascination for automatons could possibly come from and whether the feeling of the uncanny that I felt in my childhood can be attributed to this fascination. Throughout the pages, the essay analyses different sources of fascinations of automatons and argues that they are the different responses towards the feeling of the uncanny. An automaton is both a mimesis and an alterity: an observer will be awed by the power of men to be able to create life and at the same time be fearful of being challenged by what it means to be human.

Think of the essay as your lonesome journey to an unknown extraterrestrial planet inhabited by species that look alike us. Unclear whether the unknown species can be harm to you, you will try to do as much research as possible about them in order to gain a better understanding and to maneuver  your way into their society. The first three pages of this book, The Writer, The technology behind, and The ideas and values behind, gives you that information you require for your further expedition in the territory of the automatons. The later four pages, Playing god, Representations of memory, Threat of automatons, and Mechanization of men, can be read in any order of your preference as all of which are of same level of importance and tries to simultaneously argue towards a hypothesis of where the source of fascination of automatons could possibly be rooted. 

The conclusion page can be said to be the most important page out of this essay because, not only it has a personal motive of trying to trace back where my feeling of uncanniness came from, but also, it summarizes up my arguments and answers the posed question overall.