Introduction

The quest to create artificial life and automated servants has captivated human imagination since the dawn of civilization. Long before the industrial revolution and the age of electronics, ancient civilizations had already experimented with mechanical devices that could mimic life and perform tasks autonomously.

The ancient era witnessed achievements in the creation of automated devices and mechanical servants across multiple civilizations. From the priest-operated statues of ancient Egypt around 2500 BCE, to the sophisticated automata described in Chinese texts and the mechanical marvels of Hellenistic engineers, ancient peoples demonstrated extraordinary ingenuity in designing self-operating machines – what we now recognize as the earliest robots.

These early robots served various purposes: religious devices that inspired awe in temple visitors, entertainment automata that delighted royal courts, practical mechanisms for timekeeping and water distribution, and philosophical demonstrations of mechanical principles. These ancient automata represent not merely technological curiosities, but expressions of human creativity and the eternal desire to transcend the limitations of manual labor through mechanical innovation.

Read the complete history of robots here.

A History Of Robots In The Ancient Era (3000 BCE – 500 CE)

The story of robots in the ancient era reveals a rich tapestry of cultural exchange, scientific advancement, and philosophical inquiry, and the technological innovations of this period, including the use of hydraulics, pneumatics, cam mechanisms, and feedback systems, established the fundamental principles that would influence automation and robotics for centuries to come.

The Bronze Age Foundations (2000-1100 BCE)

2000 BCE – The Dancing Dwarves of Middle Kingdom Egypt

In the workshops of Middle Kingdom Egypt (circa 2000-1800 BCE), artisans crafted what may be humanity’s oldest surviving mechanical automaton: a miniature wooden theater featuring three dwarf figures that performed synchronized dance movements. This remarkable device, housed in a tomb and designed to entertain the deceased in the afterlife, operated through an ingenious system of interlocking wooden rollers and gut strings—essentially a primitive cam-and-follower mechanism. When a crank was turned, the rollers would rotate at different rates, pulling strings that animated the figures in a choreographed sequence. This artifact demonstrates that even 4,000 years ago, engineers understood the principle of converting rotary motion into complex, programmable movements—the same fundamental concept that would later drive everything from music boxes to industrial robots. The device represents not merely a toy but a sophisticated meditation on the boundary between the living and the artificial, crafted with the precision that Egyptian artisans brought to their monumental architecture.

1500 BCE – Amenemhet’s Water Clock: Measuring the Unmeasurable

A tomb inscription from the 16th century BCE credits Amenemhet, a court official and engineer to Pharaoh Amenhotep I, with innovations in water clock technology—the clepsydra, from the Greek meaning “water thief.” While earlier civilizations in Mesopotamia and Egypt had used simple water-drip timekeepers, Amenemhet’s contribution likely involved refinements that made these devices more accurate and reliable. The Egyptian water clock functioned through the steady outflow of water from a vessel marked with graduated lines; as the water level descended, it indicated the passage of time. The engineering challenge was formidable: water flows faster when the vessel is full (due to greater pressure) and slower as it empties, creating non-linear timekeeping. Ancient engineers addressed this through carefully calculated vessel shapes—often conical or with sophisticated curved profiles—that compensated for the changing flow rate. These devices were not mere curiosities but essential instruments for religious observance, astronomical calculations, and civil administration in a civilization where the flooding of the Nile determined the rhythm of life. The water clock represents humanity’s first automated regulatory system, a machine that operated independently once set in motion, embodying the ancient dream of self-governing mechanisms.

1100 BCE – The Animated Gods of Egyptian Temples

Hieroglyphic inscriptions from the 20th Dynasty (circa 1100 BCE) document a practice that blurred the line between mechanical engineering and theatrical illusion: moving statues within temple complexes. These mechanisms served a profound religious purpose—they were not intended to deceive but to manifest the presence of divine power in the physical world. Priestly engineers concealed systems of levers, counterweights, and possibly early hydraulic mechanisms within hollow statue bases, allowing sacred figures to appear to move their arms in blessing, nod their heads in approval, or even “speak” through hidden tubes that carried the voices of priests. One documented system used weighted wooden arms that could be raised by pulling concealed ropes, creating the appearance of a deity gesturing. These mechanisms operated at the intersection of engineering, stagecraft, and theology, representing the ancient understanding that technology could serve as an intermediary between the human and divine realms. The sophistication of these devices should not be underestimated—they required precise mechanical knowledge, understanding of leverage ratios, and skills in concealing mechanisms within architectural spaces. In many ways, they were the ancient world’s first animatronics, ancestors of every mechanical figure that would follow.

The Axial Age Of Mechanical Philosophy (1000-300 BCE)

1023-957 BCE – Yan Shi’s Humanoid Automaton: Legend and Engineering Truth

The Liezi (compiled in the 4th century CE but preserving much older oral traditions) recounts an astonishing encounter: the legendary artificer Yan Shi presenting King Mu of Zhou with a life-sized humanoid automaton so convincing that it was initially mistaken for a living performer. The text describes in remarkable detail how this mechanical being “walked with rapid strides, moving its head up and down” and could sing and gesture. When the king grew suspicious that this was merely a concealed human, Yan Shi demonstrated the automaton’s mechanical nature by disassembling it, revealing “leather, wood, glue, and lacquer” with internal organs made of “joints and members” that functioned through mechanical principles. While we must approach such ancient accounts with scholarly caution—the Liezi contains philosophical parables alongside historical reports—the text’s technical specificity suggests knowledge of actual mechanical humanoids. The description of internal “organs” likely refers to a system of levers, pulleys, and possibly primitive linkages that translated motion from a central drive mechanism to various body parts. Chinese engineering of this period was extraordinarily sophisticated, capable of producing bronze vessels with tolerances measured in fractions of millimeters. The account raises a profound question: if such a device existed, it would have been the world’s first humanoid robot, a mechanical mirror held up to human form itself, challenging ancient philosophers to contemplate what distinguishes the living from the cunningly crafted.

500 BCE – Persian Water Clocks: Engineering Against Entropy

In the arid expanses of Greater Iran—particularly in desert cities like Yazd, Isfahan, Zibad, and Gonabad—Persian engineers developed the fenjaan, water clock systems of remarkable sophistication adapted to environments where water was precious and time measurement crucial for organizing irrigation, religious observances, and astronomical studies. These devices faced unique challenges in climates with extreme temperature variations that could cause water to expand, contract, or evaporate. Persian engineers responded with innovations including underground installation to maintain temperature stability, the use of calibrated copper vessels resistant to corrosion, and complex float mechanisms that could indicate time even as water levels changed. Some systems incorporated multiple chambers where water cascaded from one vessel to another, using the principle of constant head (maintaining stable pressure) to ensure regular flow. The most advanced Persian water clocks included astronomical indicators, showing the positions of celestial bodies alongside temporal measurements. These devices represent a crucial evolutionary step in humanity’s quest for automated timekeeping—they were machines that, once properly calibrated and filled, operated autonomously, requiring only periodic maintenance. The Persian tradition would later influence Islamic horology, leading to the extraordinary astronomical clocks of the medieval period.

5th Century BCE – Pindar’s Rhodes: The Island of Living Statues

In his “Seventh Olympian Ode,” the Greek lyric poet Pindar (circa 518-438 BCE) described the island of Rhodes in terms that seem to blend mythological imagination with witnessed reality: “The animated figures stand / Adorning every public street / And seem to breathe in stone, or / move their marble feet.” While poetic language naturally employs hyperbole, Pindar’s description likely references actual mechanical statues that were features of Rhodian civic life. Rhodes, a wealthy maritime power and center of Hellenistic culture, was famous for its bronze-working—the Colossus of Rhodes being the most celebrated example—and its sculptors possessed the technical knowledge to create kinetic artworks. These “animated figures” probably operated through relatively simple mechanisms: wind-powered elements that caused parts to move, water-driven systems concealed within fountain complexes, or carefully balanced elements that could sway or rotate with minimal energy input. The significance lies not in the complexity of the mechanisms but in their public visibility—these were not hidden temple mysteries but civic installations, suggesting that mechanical animation was becoming democratized, moving from the exclusive domain of priests to public entertainment and civic pride. Pindar’s verse captures a moment when the boundary between sculpture and machine was becoming pleasantly uncertain, when art itself could seem to awaken.

400-360 BCE – Archytas and the Steam-Powered Pigeon: Humanity’s First Flight Experiment

Archytas of Tarentum (428-347 BCE) stands as one of history’s most remarkable polymaths—a Pythagorean philosopher, mathematician, military strategist, statesman, and engineer who reportedly never lost a battle and saved Plato’s life. His most extraordinary creation, documented by writers including Aulus Gellius and Favorinus, was a wooden bird called “The Pigeon” (Peristera) that reportedly achieved powered flight for approximately 200 meters. Ancient sources describe it as “suspended by balancing weights and propelled by a stream of air enclosed and hidden within it,” suggesting a hollow wooden structure containing a pressure vessel that released steam or compressed air through a nozzle, generating thrust through the principle that Newton would formalize two millennia later as his third law of motion. The device likely hung from wires or a pivot point, following a controlled arc rather than free flight, but this should not diminish its significance—Archytas had created the world’s first jet-propelled vehicle, demonstrating that reactive thrust could generate motion. The engineering required heating water to steam within a confined space (probably using the bird’s hollow body as a boiler), maintaining structural integrity under pressure, and directing the expanding gas through an aperture. This represents humanity’s first documented attempt to harness the power of steam for propulsion, predating the Industrial Revolution by over 2,000 years. Archytas’s pigeon was simultaneously a technological marvel, a mathematical demonstration (he was calculating geometric means and aerodynamic principles), and a philosophical statement—if mechanisms could fly, what was the essential difference between the artificial and the natural?

335 BCE – Aristotle’s Vision of Automated Labor

In his Politics, the great philosopher Aristotle (384-322 BCE) contemplated a future that would not arrive for two millennia: “If every instrument could accomplish its own work, obeying or anticipating the will of others… if the shuttle would weave and the plectrum touch the lyre without a hand to guide them, chief workmen would not want servants, nor masters slaves.” This passage is extraordinary not as a prediction of automation (Aristotle was illustrating a philosophical point about the natural necessity of slavery in ancient society, an argument we now rightly reject) but as evidence that ancient thinkers could conceive of fully autonomous machines. Aristotle had witnessed the mechanical marvels emerging from workshops across the Hellenistic world—automated puppets, self-moving vehicles, and hydraulic devices—and could extrapolate these technologies to their logical conclusion: machines capable of replacing human labor entirely. His reference to the mythical tripods of Hephaestus, the Greek god of smithing, which “entered the assembly of the gods at their own motion,” shows that automation was not merely a technical concept but part of the cultural imagination. The passage reveals that 2,300 years ago, humanity understood that if technology could be perfected sufficiently, it would fundamentally transform social and economic structures. Aristotle could not have imagined computer-controlled looms or synthesizers, but he grasped the essential principle: autonomous machines would reshape civilization.

The Alexandrian Revolution (300 BCE – 100 CE)

285-222 BCE – Ctesibius: The Father of Pneumatics and Hydraulic Automation

Ctesibius of Alexandria (flourished circa 285-222 BCE) transformed automata from mechanical curiosities into sophisticated machines based on scientific principles. Born the son of a barber, Ctesibius observed the behavior of compressed air in his father’s shop—particularly the way counterweighted mirrors moved smoothly through pneumatic mechanisms—and recognized that both air and water could be harnessed as working fluids to power complex machines. His innovations were revolutionary:

The hydraulis (water organ) represented the world’s first keyboard instrument, using water pressure to maintain steady airflow through pipes of different lengths, producing musical notes. The mechanism worked by using a pumping system to compress air into a chamber where water pressure regulated its release—an early application of the pneumatic principle that constant water pressure could stabilize variable air pressure, creating steady musical tones. This was not merely an instrument but a demonstration of feedback control: water acted as a regulator, automatically adjusting to maintain consistent air pressure regardless of playing intensity.

His improved clepsydra (water clock) incorporated the first known feedback regulatory system in history. Earlier water clocks suffered from decreasing accuracy as water pressure dropped with the descending water level. Ctesibius solved this through an ingenious float mechanism: as water drained from the measuring vessel, a float descended, mechanically adjusting an intake valve to maintain constant water level in a reservoir above, ensuring steady pressure and thus constant flow rate. This elegant solution—using the system’s output to regulate its input—embodies the fundamental principle of cybernetics that Norbert Wiener would formalize in the 1940s. Ctesibius had created a machine that regulated itself, achieving homeostasis through mechanical means.

His pneumatic and bronze spring catapults revolutionized military engineering by storing energy in compressed air cylinders and tempered bronze springs rather than twisted sinew, providing more consistent and powerful launches. The pneumatic catapult was essentially a giant piston system where compressed air drove a ram forward with tremendous force.

270 BCE – The Singing Cornucopia: Pneumatic Performance Art

For the funeral monument of Ptolemy II Philadelphus, Ctesibius designed an automaton that blurred the boundaries between machine, art, and religious devotion: a mechanical cornucopia that produced musical sounds, apparently singing hymns in honor of the deceased pharaoh. While complete details have not survived, contemporary descriptions and Ctesibius’s known techniques suggest the mechanism used compressed air released through carefully tuned pipes—essentially a pneumatic organ shaped as the horn of plenty, symbol of abundance and divine favor. The device likely operated on a cyclical basis, powered by a water reservoir that accumulated slowly and then discharged through a siphon mechanism (another Ctesibian invention), creating periodic bursts of compressed air that flowed through the musical pipes. This represented a convergence of technologies: pneumatics, hydraulics, musical theory (understanding harmonic ratios), and sculptural art. The cornucopia was not merely decorative but functional—a machine that transformed potential energy (stored water) into kinetic energy (flowing water) into pneumatic energy (compressed air) and finally into acoustic energy (musical sound). It stood as a testament to Ptolemaic engineering prowess, a mechanical voice singing eternally at the boundary between life and death.

The Age Of Hero (1st Century CE)

62 CE – Hero of Alexandria: The Edison of Antiquity

Hero (or Heron) of Alexandria (circa 10-70 CE) stands as the ancient world’s most prolific inventor and technical writer, documenting over 80 mechanical devices in works including Pneumatica, Automata, Mechanica, and Catoptrica. His achievements span multiple disciplines:

The aeolipile (“Hero’s engine”) was humanity’s first steam engine, though used for demonstration rather than practical work. This ingenious device consisted of a sealed spherical cauldron mounted on a pivot, with two L-shaped exhaust pipes extending from opposite sides. When water inside was heated to steam, pressure built until the steam escaped through the bent pipes, the reactive thrust causing the sphere to spin rapidly on its axis. Though Hero used it to demonstrate pneumatic principles rather than to power machinery, the aeolipile embodies the thermodynamic principle that would drive the Industrial Revolution 1,700 years later: heat energy converts to kinetic energy through expanding gas. Had ancient society possessed the metallurgical capability to produce high-pressure vessels and the economic incentive to replace slave labor with machines, Hero’s engine could have sparked an industrial transformation.

His coin-operated holy water dispenser represents the world’s first vending machine, operating through an elegant mechanical principle. When a worshipper inserted a five-drachma coin through a slot, it fell onto one end of a balanced lever inside the dispensing vessel. The coin’s weight tipped the lever, opening a valve that allowed holy water to flow into the supplicant’s container. As water flowed out, the dispenser became lighter; once sufficient weight was removed, the coin slid off the lever, which returned to its balanced position, closing the valve. This device automated a commercial transaction through pure mechanics—no human oversight required—demonstrating understanding of leverage ratios, fluid dynamics, and even primitive pricing mechanisms (coin weight determined water volume).

His automated temple doors created theatrical divine manifestations. When priests lit a fire on an altar, the rising heat expanded air in a concealed chamber beneath. This pressurized air forced water from one hidden reservoir into another, and the descending weight of the accumulating water pulled on ropes connected to the temple door hinges through a pulley system. The doors swung open majestically, apparently moved by divine will. When the fire was extinguished, a counterweight system slowly reversed the process, closing the doors. This mechanism represents a sophisticated energy conversion chain: chemical (combustion) → thermal (heat) → pneumatic (expanding air) → hydraulic (moving water) → mechanical (rotating doors). Hero understood that energy could be transformed between forms and transmitted across distances through various media.

His automated theaters were perhaps his most complex creations—miniature proscenium stages with mechanical actors that performed plays lasting nearly ten minutes without human intervention. The entire performance was powered by a slowly descending weight (essentially a primitive motor) whose energy was distributed through a system of rotating cylindrical drums wrapped with ropes, each rope controlling different stage elements through an intricate pattern of knots. As the drum rotated, different knots engaged with mechanisms at different times, creating a programmed sequence: doors opened, mechanical figures entered and exited, props rose and fell, even artificial thunder and lightning effects occurred on schedule. This was essentially a programmable mechanical computer—the pattern of knots on the drum constituted a stored program, and the drum itself was a read-head executing instructions sequentially. Hero had created something remarkably similar to a Jacquard loom (invented 1804) or even a player piano, demonstrating that the principle of stored-program automation existed in antiquity. These theaters were not merely entertaining; they were demonstrations that complex, coordinated, time-dependent actions could be completely automated through mechanical means.

The Chinese Parallel Tradition

206 BCE-220 CE – Han Dynasty Mechanical Marvels

While the Mediterranean world developed its automata tradition, Chinese civilization pursued parallel innovations with distinct cultural character. During the Han Dynasty, imperial workshops produced extraordinary mechanical devices for court entertainment and administrative purposes. Historical texts including the Book of Han and Records of the Grand Historian document mechanical musicians that played instruments, automated servants that poured wine and offered dishes, and elaborate water-powered mechanisms that operated palace decorations.

The Chinese approach emphasized integration with natural forces—particularly water power—and philosophical harmony between mechanical precision and aesthetic beauty. Han engineers understood differential gearing (allowing two wheels to rotate at different speeds from a single input), escapement mechanisms (regulating motion through intermittent locking and release), and sophisticated metallurgy that produced bronze components of remarkable precision.

One documented device was a mechanical wine-pouring servant that could sense when a cup was full and automatically cease pouring—a feedback system based on weight or displacement sensing. Another was a mechanical orchestra where water power drove a series of cam-operated figures that struck percussion instruments, plucked strings, and even simulated the motion of dancing performers. These devices served both entertainment and political purposes, demonstrating imperial power through technological sophistication and creating an atmosphere of mysterious, almost magical abundance.

132 CE – Zhang Heng’s Seismoscope: Automated Sensor Technology

Zhang Heng (78-139 CE), polymath astronomer, mathematician, inventor, and poet, created one of history’s most ingenious automated sensor systems: the seismoscope (houfeng didong yi, “instrument for measuring the seasonal winds and the movements of the Earth”). This bronze vessel, approximately two meters in diameter, featured eight dragon heads positioned around its circumference, each holding a bronze ball in its mouth. Below each dragon sat a bronze toad with mouth open. When seismic waves from a distant earthquake struck the device, an internal mechanism detected the direction of the primary wave and released the ball from the dragon head pointing toward the earthquake’s epicenter; the ball fell into the corresponding toad’s mouth with an audible clang, alerting observers.

The internal mechanism remains debated by historians, but most reconstructions suggest a heavy pendulum suspended at the center, free to swing in any direction. When seismic waves arrived, inertia caused the pendulum to swing opposite to the ground motion, triggering one of eight delicate lever mechanisms positioned around it, each connected to a different dragon head. The triggered lever released that dragon’s ball while the others remained secure. This represents automated sensing—the device required no human intervention, operated continuously, and translated natural phenomena (earthquake waves) into discrete, observable signals (falling balls) indicating both occurrence and direction.

In 138 CE, Zhang Heng’s device famously detected an earthquake in Longxi (approximately 500 kilometers away) when no tremor was felt in the capital Luoyang. Court officials initially doubted the device, but messengers arrived days later confirming the disaster. The seismoscope demonstrated that machines could extend human senses beyond biological limitations, perceiving events at distances impossible for unaided observation—a principle underlying all modern sensor technology.

The Roman Synthesis & Preservation

1st Century BCE – Vitruvius: Engineering Encyclopedia of the Ancient World

Marcus Vitruvius Pollio’s De Architectura (circa 30-15 BCE), dedicated to Emperor Augustus, preserved Hellenistic engineering knowledge in exhaustive detail, ensuring techniques developed in Greek workshops would survive Roman political transformation. His ten-book treatise covered not just architecture but all mechanical arts, including:

Hodometers (distance-measuring devices) attached to wheeled vehicles, using gear ratios to convert wheel rotations into measured distances—essentially mechanical computers performing continuous mathematical operations. Every time the wheel completed one revolution, a gear with fewer teeth would advance one position; this gear would drive another with a different ratio, creating a mechanical chain that ultimately displayed total distance. These devices required understanding of gear mathematics, mechanical precision in manufacturing matching components, and lubrication systems to maintain operation over long journeys.

Water wheels and mill systems that converted flowing water’s kinetic energy into rotational energy for grinding grain, sawing stone, and powering trip-hammers in metalworking. Vitruvius described both horizontal-wheeled mills (where the wheel lay flat and was struck by water from above) and the more efficient vertical-wheeled mills with gear systems that converted horizontal water wheel rotation into vertical millstone rotation—a 90-degree power transmission requiring sophisticated understanding of bevel gears.

His documentation proved crucial: when the Western Roman Empire fragmented, copies of Vitruvius’s work preserved in monastery libraries maintained knowledge that would be rediscovered during the Renaissance, directly influencing engineers like Leonardo da Vinci.

The Late Ancient Culmination

200-300 CE – Roman Hydraulic Sophistication

In the later Roman Empire, before the political disruptions that would fragment the Mediterranean world, engineers achieved unprecedented scales in hydraulic systems. The most impressive were industrial water mill complexes like those at Barbegal in southern France (circa 200 CE), where sixteen water wheels arranged in two parallel lines descended a hillside, each turning millstones that could process approximately 300 kilograms of grain per hour. The total complex could feed an estimated 10,000-40,000 people, representing the ancient world’s closest approach to industrial-scale automated production.

These complexes required extraordinary engineering: calculating precise water flow rates to ensure each wheel received adequate power, constructing gear trains that converted the wheels’ horizontal rotation into the vertical rotation of millstones, building channels that distributed water evenly across multiple wheels, and creating overflow systems that prevented flooding during high water periods. The Romans had created factories—not in the modern sense of housing workers and machines under one roof, but in the functional sense of using automated systems to transform raw materials into finished products at production scales far exceeding human muscle power.

4th Century CE – The Liezi Compilation: Preserving Ancient Wonders

When the Taoist philosophical text Liezi was compiled in its current form during the 4th century CE (drawing on materials potentially centuries older), it preserved accounts of Chinese automata that might otherwise have vanished. Beyond the Yan Shi narrative, the text describes mechanical birds that flew, automated servants that performed household tasks, and philosophical dialogues about the nature of artifice and reality. One passage describes a mechanical horse that could gallop, suggesting knowledge of linkage mechanisms that converted rotary motion into reciprocating motion—the same principle underlying locomotive drive wheels.

These accounts, whether strictly historical or embellished, demonstrate that Chinese philosophical tradition grappled seriously with questions about artificial life: If a machine can perfectly replicate life’s behaviors, what distinguishes the mechanical from the living? If consciousness cannot be detected from external observation, how do we know machines lack it? These questions, debated in 4th-century China, anticipate Alan Turing’s imitation game by 1,600 years.

Final Thoughts

The robots of the ancient world were never merely mechanical curiosities or entertainment devices—they were philosophical instruments investigating the boundaries of life, consciousness, and divine power. When Egyptian priests manipulated hidden levers to animate temple statues, they were not simply deceiving worshippers, but manifesting a theological principle: that divine will could operate through material means. When Greek engineers created steam-powered devices and automated theaters, they were demonstrating that natural phenomena—heat, pressure, gravity—could be harnessed systematically through understanding mechanical principles. When Chinese artificers built humanoid automata and sensing devices, they were exploring how closely artificial systems could approach the complexity and responsiveness of living beings.

These ancient engineers worked without calculus, without precision metal-working tools, without standardized measurement systems, and yet they discovered principles that remain fundamental: feedback control, stored-program automation, energy conversion between forms, pneumatic and hydraulic power transmission, gear trains for mechanical advantage, and even sensors that extend perception beyond human limits.

The ancient automata remind us that the dream of artificial life is not a modern phenomenon born of computer science, but an ancient human aspiration, one as old as civilization itself. Our ancestors, looking at the complex movements of life around them, wondered: could we build such things? Their answer, demonstrated through bronze and wood, leather and pneumatics, water and steam, was a resounding yes. We stand on their shoulders still, and every automatic door that opens when we approach, every thermostat that maintains room temperature, every vending machine that dispenses products, every keyboard instrument, every automated factory—all are descendants of mechanisms pioneered in workshops scattered across the ancient world, from Memphis to Alexandria, from Athens to Tarentum, and from Luoyang to Rhodes.

Thanks for reading!

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