A couple decades after the
first appearance of Steam Men in the 19th century, and a few years after the
word "robot" was coined, one Professor Harry May from London
toured around the US with Alpha the robot. The one ton mechanical man was
built from a combination of modern inventions that granted Alpha certain skills, from
product model and
vocal promoter of the automatic electric toaster, to gunslinger. The problem with giving Alpha a gun was that
the robot revolted (PDF,
via), shooting his master and creator in 1932. After this incident,
Alpha became Mary Ann (
via), complete with new hair, a dress, and a soprano voice.
posted by filthy light thief
on Aug 12, 2010 -
16 comments
Valentino Braitenberg's 1984 book,
Vehicles: Experiments in Synthetic Psychology was a seminal work for its discussion of how one might design a system (biological or otherwise) in order to generate behavior like that seen in beings with brains. He embarks on a series of thought experiments in which he creates thirteen
"vehicles" through simple components that (arguably) display intelligent behavior, evolving in a Darwinian fashion to demonstrate what appears to be high-level cognition.
[more inside]
posted by emilyd22222
on Jan 17, 2010 -
16 comments
I just finished up reading
The Turk by Tom Standage (briefly mentioned in passing
here) a biography of the chess-playing automaton that toured Europe and later the Americas during the pivotal transition from the 18th to the 19th century. The Automaton was invented as an exercise in national pride by
Wolfgang von Kempelen, who considered it a trifle compared to his experiments with
mechanical speech synthesis. As a celebrity, the automaton had historic encounters with Benjamin Franklin, Napoleon, Beethoven,
Philidor and Charles Babbage, and fictional encounters with the monarchs Catherine the Great, George III and Frederick II. Standage credits it with influencing the development of the
Difference Engine, the power loom, Poe's
mystery stories, and Barnum's
manipulation of the press. The myths surrounding have even caught
James Randi, who seems to have been unaware of a colleague's
reconstruction based on notes from the last owner.
posted by KirkJobSluder
on Sep 21, 2005 -
7 comments
Automaton \Au*tom"a*ton\, n.; pl. L.
Automata, E.
Automatons. [L. fr. Gr. ?, neut. of ? self-moving; ? self + a root ma, man, to strive, think, cf. ? to strive.] 1. Any thing or being regarded as having the power of spontaneous motion or action.
posted by crunchland
on Apr 14, 2003 -
13 comments
