Pre-computer
Automatons were quite a novelty. In the days before computers and electronics, some were very sophisticated, using pneumatics, mechanics, and hydraulics. Early famous examples include al-Jazari's humanoid robots, and Jacques de Vaucanson's artificial duck, which had thousands of moving parts. The duck could reportedly eat and digest, drink, quack, and splash in a pool. It was exhibited all over Europe until it fell into disrepair.
However, it wasn't until the invention of cheap computing power that artificial life as a legitimate science began in earnest, steeped more in the theoretical and computational than the mechanical and mythological.
Read more about this topic: History Of Artificial Life