The Turk: The Life and Times of the Famous 19th Century Chess-Playing Machine Tapa dura - 2002

In the annals of man and machine, The Turk has to rank among the most astonishing stories. In 1769, Baron Von Kempelen, engineer to the Imperial Court in Vienna, was so unimpressed by the performance of a visiting conjurer that he boasted he could do better. He built a mechanical chess-playing mannequin, dressed like a Turk, capable of beating even the Court's best players. Over the next decades, the Turk toured the courts of Europe to tremendous acclaim. Amid the craze for automata that swept Europe during the late 18th and early 19th centuries, as the Industrial Revolution developed, it was one of the wonders of its time: Benjamin Franklin and Napoleon were among the luminaries who lost to it. Eventually, the Turk ended up in America, where it toured for many years before being destroyed by a fire in 1854. But was it a fraud? The colorful story of the Turk involves a diverse cast of Ludwig van Beethoven, Edgar Allen Poe, Charles Babbage and many others, and encompasses the history of magic, the rise of machines, the debate over mechanical reasoning, and the early days of artificial intelligence.

Detalles

• Título The Turk: The Life and Times of the Famous 19th Century Chess-Playing Machine
• Autor Tom Standage
• Encuadernación Tapa dura
• Edición First Edition
• Páginas 224
• Volúmenes 1
• Idioma ENG
• Editorial Walker Books, New York
• Fecha de publicación April 1, 2002
• Ilustrado Sí
• ISBN 9780802713919 / 0802713912
• Peso 0.97 libras (0.44 kg)
• Dimensiones 8.04 x 5.78 x 1.01 pulgadas (20.42 x 14.68 x 2.57 cm)
• Número de catálogo de la Librería del Congreso de EEUU 2001055909
• Dewey Decimal Code 794.17