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When Charles Babbage Played Chess With the Original Mechanical Turk (ieee.org)

Posted by EditorDavid on from the pawns-of-history dept.

IEEE Spectrum is publishing a six-part series exploring the human history of AI. the_newsbeagle writes: The 19th century British engineer Charles Babbage is sometimes called the father of the computer. But his first design for a massive computing machine, a contraption called the Difference Engine that had some 25,000 parts, was just a giant calculator intended to handle logarithmic tables. It wasn't until he began designing his first Analytical Engine that he began to dream of a smart machine that could handle more general-purpose computations.

This short essay argues that Babbage's creative leap was inspired by an early example of AI hype: A supposed chess-playing machine called The Turk that had astounded onlookers throughout the courts of Europe. Babbage played two games against the Turk, and lost both.

30 comments

  1. NOBODY believed in 'the Turk' by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    More fake news on slashdot. The recent 'Orville' had an episode predicated on how real people would have their lives completely mis-represented by 'official' history hundreds of years later- and this is an eternal truth.

    "You are 'clever' - but people in the past were credulous thickos" is the oldest sheeple manipulating tactic- and what do the sheeple know about the past in first hand terms?

    Since Babbage was using state-of-the-art knowledge to design his mechanical calculating machines, it is 100% certain he didn't believe in 'magical' tech available only to the mysterious 'arab'. But like all smart peeps, he enjoyed 'fun' clever silliness. Years later this is misrepresented to sheeple as somethink else.

    The TRUTH of Babbage and others like him at the time is that he was beginning to think in terms of general programmability in THEORY- understanding that machines comprised of loads of precision hard cogs that turned ever less well cos of accumulated friction were not an ideal platform for this goal. He was never going to make a true computer from hard metal- and he knew this.

    A Victorian thinker gave us Boolean Logic years before we even had simple electronics to implement this as well. Betas have a hard time understanding how the mind of Alphas can hold ideas not yet capabloe of practical implementation down to current tech limits- and this is what Slashdot preys on.

    Junk long form 'essays' in the same outlets that support the wahhabi horrors of Saudi Arabia are promoted here on a daily basis- ever ask yourselves "why?".

    1. Re: NOBODY believed in 'the Turk' by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      The first example of AI was actually found in the Epic of Gilgamesh, which was authored by a genderfluid, pansexual womyn named Larrie.

    2. Re:NOBODY believed in 'the Turk' by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I see. People who believed in magic and witchcraft and sorcery couldn't believe a machine could play chess. Interesting historical revisionism you've got going on there.

    3. Re:NOBODY believed in 'the Turk' by Mostly+a+lurker · · Score: 2

      Whether Babbage believed the Turk was real is irrelevant to whether the idea stimulated his imagination. The history of AI is littered with fraudulent and exaggerated claims, but the state of the art moves on

    4. Re: NOBODY believed in 'the Turk' by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      The first example of AI was actually found in the Epic of Gilgamesh, which was authored by a genderfluid, pansexual womyn named Larrie.

      Those movies sucked. Angelina Jolie as the monster's mom?!? Peter Jackson's decision to make it into three volumes, sheesh! And a grumpy old man Luke Skywalker was the worst.

    5. Re:NOBODY believed in 'the Turk' by K.+S.+Kyosuke · · Score: 1

      He was never going to make a true computer from hard metal

      I dunno, it seems to me that relays would have worked just fine.

      --
      Ezekiel 23:20
    6. Re:NOBODY believed in 'the Turk' by iggymanz · · Score: 1

      Not in the 1820s when he first designed the difference engine, they really did not exist in a form useful for digital computing. In 1837 Davy invented a kind of relay that pulled a needle into mercury solution to close contact... for general purpose computing you'd need the kind of relay that would pass current from one contact through either of two contacts, one when opened and another closed. Railroads had the right stuff in 1860s and onwards... a bit late for old Babbage stuck in mechanical mode

    7. Re:NOBODY believed in 'the Turk' by AlanObject · · Score: 1

      He was never going to make a true computer from hard metal- and he knew this.

      I highly recommend if you can when you are in the San Jose Area and have a free afternoon you can go see a full implementation of the Babbage machine in operation at the Computer History Museum. They say there is one in London as well.

    8. Re:NOBODY believed in 'the Turk' by pezpunk · · Score: 1

      anybody who uses the term "sheeple" is a fucking idiot.

      --
      i could live a little longer in this prison
    9. Re: NOBODY believed in 'the Turk' by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Anyone who uses the term "fucking idiot" is a syphilitic wanker.

    10. Re: NOBODY believed in 'the Turk' by Darinbob · · Score: 2

      Anyone who uses the term "syphilitic wanker" probably doesn't know how you catch syphilis.

    11. Re:NOBODY believed in 'the Turk' by K.+S.+Kyosuke · · Score: 1

      Perhaps it didn't happen in actual history, but it doesn't sound implausible to me that someone at that time *could* have build usable relays a few decades earlier for Babbage. Well, maybe mass manufacturing would have been a problem? But I've always thought that the electromechanic route still would have been more achievable than precision mechanics for a large computer.

      --
      Ezekiel 23:20
    12. Re:NOBODY believed in 'the Turk' by angel'o'sphere · · Score: 1

      The Babbage machine would have worked fine if he or his workers would have worked more precise.
      There are working Babbage replicas!!

      The first computers build by Konrad Zuse were based one relays, and worked fine, too.

      --
      Cost free eBook I read (by iBook/Kobo/Amazon/ObookO/Gutenberg etc.): "The Green Odyssey" by Philip Jose Farmer.
    13. Re: NOBODY believed in 'the Turk' by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      We have a winner!

    14. Re:NOBODY believed in 'the Turk' by iggymanz · · Score: 1

      Well, yes electo-mechanical binary computer came first: Zuse in the late 1930s did build (with two students) one with all custom parts out of sheet metal. However, he still had the advantage of many kinds of technology that didn't exist in the early 19th century. Even standardized screws and bolts and a way to make them happened in the 1860s.

      https://arxiv.org/pdf/1406.188...

  2. Robot narratives by TuringTest · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Western narrations about artificial intelligence are largely based upon the myths of either Galatea (think Pinocchio, the construct that becomes human) or Prometheus (Frankenstein, the dangers of bringing god-like power to humans).

    However, the most realistic form of AI that we're going to interact with in the near future, works more like the Mechanical Turk: humans trying to fool humans into thinking that the puppet is life-like and has agency of it's own, while they pull the strings in the shadows.

    In these times of Siris and Alexas, which largely are glorified chat bots scripted to make them look more intelligent than they are, it would be great if we had more stories approaching the subject from this angle. The Wizard of Oz is one such history, with it's "don't mind the man behind the curtain" is a good, well know one. I'd want to see many more modern examples of this story.

    --
    Singularity: a belief in the "God" idea with the "demiurge" relation inverted.
    1. Re:Robot narratives by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      However, the most realistic form of AI that we're going to interact with in the near future, works more like the Mechanical Turk: humans trying to fool humans into thinking that the puppet is life-like and has agency of it's own, while they pull the strings in the shadows.

      Someone needs to expose the Tesla Autopilot/Cloudflare CAPTCHA fraud for what it is before it kills anyone else. I mean there is simply no way that I can correctly select all the stop lights and crosswalks in time. How many more innocent people must die?!?

    2. Re:Robot narratives by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I like the cut of your jib, AC.

    3. Re:Robot narratives by Gravis+Zero · · Score: 1

      However, the most realistic form of AI that we're going to interact with in the near future, works more like the Mechanical Turk: humans trying to fool humans into thinking that the puppet is life-like and has agency of it's own, while they pull the strings in the shadows.

      You're not wrong. However, with neural networks and experience based learning, we are in fact moving ever closer to ultimate goal: giving agency to a machine. The real problem right now is that we don't really know the underlying concept that gives rise to agency. It might be a hundred years until we finally crack it but in the mean time we are going to make some badass puppets that eliminate many jobs previously relegated to humans.

      --
      Anons need not reply. Questions end with a question mark.
    4. Re:Robot narratives by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      However, the most realistic form of AI that we're going to interact with in the near future, works more like the Mechanical Turk: humans trying to fool humans into thinking that the puppet is life-like and has agency of it's own, while they pull the strings in the shadows.

      Yes! We're already there in limited does. While "Elysium" isn't the best movie, the robot parole officer is one of the most chilling scenes if you ask me (although, the scene has a light tone). Obviously, the robot is just a gatekeeper to prevent the person from getting any form of human treatment. That's where we are headed.

    5. Re: Robot narratives by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      The Siris and Alexas are absolutely not the standards for AI in this or any other world. Your comparison is like judging the state of the art in medicine by band-aids because they happen to be best sellers.

    6. Re:Robot narratives by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Whats funny is how AI is considered a form of applied science in its own right. It really is just an abstract branch of computing science and essentially you're right. What did they call it, Analytical Engine, and the Mechanical Machine is just a "Giant Calculator". People wake up that's all computers are, giant calculators, its so sad that we're in this mind space glorifying computers above it.

      Humans are complex animals, as computers are just complex calculators. Moving beyond that Analytical Engine or whatever, its just an abstraction of said giant calculator. I guess one can say the same about us humans, we are just an abstraction of lower organisms through the programming of evolution.

      The problem here I feel for AI is that the material used to create it, binary, 1's and 0's. This is what limits the progress of AI.

  3. Today's Turk... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    Today's Turk is called "AI", "cloud", "machine learning", etc. All complete bullshit. There is no AI. If there is, it's not in any way accessible to anyone outside of some secret research project with private technology hundreds of years into the future.

    1. Re:Today's Turk... by pezpunk · · Score: 1

      so in other words you know literally nothing about those technologies and are just mad because you misinterpreted the terminology. cool. way to out yourself as a complete ignoramus.

      --
      i could live a little longer in this prison
    2. Re:Today's Turk... by angel'o'sphere · · Score: 1

      Perhaps you want to grasp what AI actually means. A starting point would be this: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/...

      --
      Cost free eBook I read (by iBook/Kobo/Amazon/ObookO/Gutenberg etc.): "The Green Odyssey" by Philip Jose Farmer.
  4. And just like the Mechanical Turk by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    AI is no more than a man in a cabinet.

  5. One question by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    What is a "Jowie" ?

  6. A skulking whimpy weezil "notman" fail... apk by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    The KIND that STALKS me on /. here behind UNIDENTIFIABLE anonymous posts (like you are doing)! The kinds of "not-men" WHIMPS I see out there now sub 40 yrs. or so!

    YES & I mean that with a decent set of PROOF & OBSERVATIONS not only my own but from others with a HUGE sampleset (military):

    I'm 54++ & out weightlift & armwrestle guys who are my tenants for 15 yrs. or so now by TONS more than they can do - they are usually 20-35 or so!

    My brother, a field-grade commander in the U.S. Military says the same!

    SOMETHING happened to the bunch RIGHT after him (he's 44) & he says the SAME with their "new recruits"!

    I think it's the FOOD they eat (or rather, don't in GOOD food) & TOO MUCH "nintendo" shit - not enough sports.

    Speaking as a former NCAA Athlete, 1st string/starter as a FRESHMAN no less in Lacrosse (for a soon to be National Champ decades now)?

    I've actually SAID SPORTS ARE STUPID (they are NOT your future, not even GREAT ATHLETES, the BODY always "gives in" 1st vs. the mind typically is why)

    HOWEVER - not in the capacity I note now & in what I see along w/ others I note (& more) - why??

    GREEK IDEAL - sound mind/sound body.

    APK

    P.S.=> Like many 'millenial' punks are & like THESE DOUCHEBAGS that got POPPED & put away https://yro.slashdot.org/comme...

    They got 20++ yrs. coming, not DEATH sentence (too good for the little fruitcake pussies) - but instead a GOOD VISIT nighty from the BIG BLACK BUCK "LEROY" in JAIL as his "TeddyBear" for a good ass plugging & tossing his salad... apk