The Lion-Makers, An Old Indian Fable

The Lion-Makers is a fable from the Panchatantra, a collection of Indian folktales dating back to the 3rd century BCE. The story warns those who create without having a full understanding of what they’re unleashing upon the world. It was written thousands of years before the invention of nuclear bombs and the growing opportunities (and dangers) of artificial intelligence, and yet still it warns us.

I’ll go deeper into the implications at the end.

The Fable

Once upon a time, in a small village, there lived four friends. Three were learned in the arts and sciences. The fourth considered himself too practical for that, accumulating common sense instead. However, even he was not content with his knowledge, for he had never put it to practical use. He convinced the other three to embark on a journey to a distant land, where they could use their knowledge to gain fame and fortune.

As they journeyed, they came across the bones of a dead lion lying on the ground. The first friend, who had studied anatomy, said, “Look at these bones! I can assemble them and bring the lion’s structure back to its original form.”

The second friend, skilled in the science of life restoration, said, “Once the bones are assembled, I can cover them with flesh, skin, and hair, making it look like a living lion.”

The third friend, who knew how to give life, said, “When the lion is complete, I can breathe life into it, and it will be as if it had never died.”

The fourth friend, practical but unambitious, said, “It is a lion. It will eat us.”

The three scholars dismissed his concerns. After all, if they were knowledgeable enough to create a lion, surely they would be able to control it. And so they proceeded with their plan. The first friend assembled the bones, and the second friend covered them with flesh, skin, and hair. The lion now looked as real as any living creature.

The wise fourth friend, who had objected earlier, realized his friends would not heed his warning. “My dear friends, if you insist on continuing, please allow me to climb this tree.”

The third friend continued on, breathing life into the lion, and it instantly sprang back to life. The lion, now alive and hungry, roared and pounced on the three friends, killing them all.

The wise fourth friend, who had taken refuge in the tree, watched the tragic scene unfold.

Then, to his horror, he learned that lions can climb trees.

The Moral & the Meaning

The moral of The Lion-Makers is that knowledge without wisdom is dangerous. Knowing how to do something doesn’t mean we should do it. Sometimes, it is easier to make something than to unmake it.

There’s also the story of the Golem, which dates back to the Talmud. In Jewish folklore, a creature formed of clay and mud could be brought to life by writing the name of God on a piece of paper and inserting it into the creature’s mouth. These creatures were called golems. These golems follow instructions to the letter, sometimes with devastating consequences.

There’s a 1797 poem by Goethe called The Sorcerer’s Apprentice. You might recognize it from that old Disney movie, The Sword in the Stone. A sorcerer tasks his apprentice with bringing pails of water into the workshop, but the boy is lazy, so he enchants a broom to carry the pails for him. He doesn’t understand the magic, and he loses control of the broom. The broom continues bringing more water, and the workshop floods, so the boy chops it in half with an axe, but both pieces of the broom are enchanted, doubling his problem.

There’s also the 1818 story of Frankenstein by Mary Shelley. It’s the story of Victor Frankenstein, a scientist who assembles human corpses into the shape of a human person, and then uses science to bring the creature to life. This creature is not so unlike the lion. It isn’t evil, but it’s dangerous, and it isn’t easily controlled. In a series of unfortunate, largely accidental events, it kills everyone Victor Frankenstein loves. Victor is the last to die. The creature survives.

These aren’t idle warnings. Three real-world examples come to mind:

• Nuclear Bombs: In 1945, J. Robert Oppenheimer’s Manhattan Project created the first nuclear bombs. Later that same year, the bombs were dropped upon Hiroshima and Nagasaki, in Japan, killing hundreds of thousands of people, and leaving behind radiation that poisoned the land and oceans for decades. There’s no undoing that invention. We now live in a world of nuclear weapons.
• Artificial Intelligence: We’re currently in the midst of an artificial intelligence revolution. We don’t know what we’re doing, and we don’t know how to do it safely, but we’re knowledgeable enough to keep the technology advancing, wherever it leads. Some experts fear that humanity may not survive.
• Corporations: It’s common for someone to create a business, then turn that business into a corporation, and then sell control of that company to investors. These investors shift the corporation’s focus towards endless profit increases, even if it compromises the original purpose of the business, even if it harms society.

But that is enough of this dark jungle.

Similar Fables

If you liked The Man-Makers, there are some other dark fables you might enjoy:

• The Mongoose and the Farmer’s Wife is an old Indian fable with a harsh conclusion.
• The Snake, The Farmer and the Heron, an old African folktale with a dark lesson.
• The Tale of the Midnight Goat Thief is another dark African folktale with a grim moral.
• The Crane and the Crab is another old tale about deceit and trickery.