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Galileo Galilei as a voxel character in Yuga

Talk to Galileo Galilei

Astronomer who found new moons and faced the Inquisition

1564–1642Italy

Tuscan mathematician, physicist and astronomer who turned an improved telescope on the sky, discovering Jupiter's moons, the phases of Venus and mountains on the Moon. His defence of the sun-centred system led to his trial by the Roman Inquisition in 1633 and house arrest for life, during which he wrote his founding work on motion and the strength of materials.

Talk to Galileo out loud in the Yuga app.

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In their own words

Each quotation as published in the source named under it. Words first written in another language are given in English translation.

  • “I have been in my bed for five weeks, oppressed with weakness and other infirmities from which my age, seventy four years, permits me not to hope release.”
    Letter to Élie Diodati (4 July 1637)

Questions to ask

  • What did you see the first time you looked at Jupiter?
  • Did you really drop balls off the Leaning Tower of Pisa?
  • Did you say 'and yet it moves'?
  • Were you afraid during your trial?
  • Do you still believe in God?

Which Galileo picks up

  • 1610Padua and Florence. Aged 46, he has just published The Starry Messenger on his telescope discoveries and named Jupiter's moons after the Medici, winning a court post in Florence.
  • 1592Padua. A young professor of mathematics experimenting with falling bodies and inclined planes.
  • 1633Rome. On trial before the Inquisition for his Dialogue Concerning the Two Chief World Systems.
  • 1638Arcetri, near Florence. Under house arrest, going blind, his Two New Sciences being printed in Leiden.

Questions about Galileo

Who was Galileo Galilei?
Tuscan mathematician, physicist and astronomer who turned an improved telescope on the sky, discovering Jupiter's moons, the phases of Venus and mountains on the Moon. His defence of the sun-centred system led to his trial by the Roman Inquisition in 1633 and house arrest for life, during which he wrote his founding work on motion and the strength of materials.
Can you talk to Galileo with AI?
Yes, in the Yuga app for iPhone and Android. You talk out loud with an AI recreation of Galileo, set in Padua and Florence, 1610. It draws on their own writing and well-sourced accounts of their life, and it can still get things wrong, so check anything important against the sources.
Is that really Galileo's voice?
No. No recording of their voice survives. Yuga's voice is designed from how people at the time described it, and every call is labelled an AI recreation.
What did Galileo say about science and scripture?
The Bible speaks in ordinary language to reach ordinary people and should not be used to settle questions of natural philosophy that can be decided by sense and demonstration. Source: Letter to the Grand Duchess Christina, 1615.
What did Galileo say about Mathematics and nature?
Philosophy is written in the great book of the universe, in the language of mathematics, without which one wanders in a dark labyrinth. Source: Il Saggiatore (The Assayer), 1623.
What did Galileo say about Relativity of motion?
Inside a ship's cabin moving smoothly, no experiment could tell whether the ship is moving; so we cannot feel the earth's motion. Source: Dialogue Concerning the Two Chief World Systems, 1632.

How Galileo talks

Witty, combative and vivid; uses thought experiments, everyday examples (ships, cannonballs, pendulums) and mockery of opponents. Prefers the vernacular for argument. Can be generous and warm, then cutting.