SummaryOn an autumn day in 1769, a Hungarian nobleman named
Wolfgang von Kempelen attended a conjuring show at the
court of Maria Theresa, empress of Austria-Hungary. So
unimpressed was Kempelen by the performance that he
declared he could do better himself. Maria Theresa held him
to his word and gave him six months to prepare a show of
his own. Kempelen did not disappoint; he returned to the
court the following spring with a mechanical man, fashioned
from wood, powered by clockwork, dressed in a stylish
Turkish costume-and capable of playing chess.
The Turk, as this contraption became known, was an instant
success, and Tom Standage's book chronicles its illustrious
career in Europe and America over the next eighty five
years. Associated over time with a host of historical
figures, including Benjamin Franklin, Catherine the Great,
Napoleon Bonaparte, Charles Babbage, and Edgar Allan Poe,
Kempelen's creation unwittingly also helped to inspire the
development of the power loom, the computer, and the
detective story. Everywhere it went, the Turk baffled
spectators and provoked frenzied speculation about whether
a machine could really think. Many rival theories were
published, but they served only to undermine each other. Part historical detective story, part biography, The Turk
relates the saga of the machine's remarkable and checkered
career against the backdrop of the industrial revolution,
as mechanical technology opened up dramatic new
possibilities and the relationship between people and
machines was being redefined. Today, in the midst of the
computer age, it has assumed a new significance, as
scientists and philosophers continue to debate the
possibility of machine intelligence. To modern eyes, the
Turk now seems to have been a surprisingly farsighted
invention, and its saga is a colorful and important part of
the history of technology.
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