Ancient History

The history of artificial intelligence dates as far back as the mythologies of the Greek Gods.  Hephaestus makes Talos, which is a bronze giant, to protect the beaches of Crete.  He protects the beaches by throwing gigantic rocks at invaders or by heating himself (Talos) to a molten hot-red color and squeezing the intruders. 
In the 5^th century B.C. Aristotle invented the first formal deductive reasoning system called syllogistic logic.  

Jumping to the 13^th century A.D., Ramon Llull, who was a Spanish theologian, invented machine for solving mathematical combinations.  Later in that same century, the invention of a clock was the first modern measuring machine.

Early in the 17^th century, Rene Descartes states that the animal body is a mechanical entity. ( Descartes was also the father of dualism; the idea that in the world there is matter and there is mind, and the two are distinct from each other.) Unfortunately at the time most people thought that Descarte's ideas were far-fetched.   

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In 1642, a famous mathematician named Pascal invented the first mechanical digital calculating machine. 

The 18^th century produced an abundance of mechanical toys.  In 1738, French engineer Jacques Vaucanson built a mechanical duck that was strikingly lifelike.  This mechanical duck could flap its' wings, walk, and even eat and digest food.  These behaviors, according to Vaucanson, were "copied from Nature."  The duck was so life-like that people actually began to wonder if that was how life worked. 

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http://www-pluto.informatik.uni-oldenburg.de/~gymwhs/faecher/de/robert_riener/vaucansons_ente.jpg