The Turk The Life and Times of the Famous 19th Century Chess-Playing Machine

by Standage, Tom

• ISBN13: 9780802713919
• ISBN10: 0802713912
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2002-04-01
• Publisher: Walker Books

Summary

On 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 costumeand 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 Turkrelates 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.

Author Biography

Tom Standage is technology editor at The Economist magazine and the author of four history books, "A History of the World in Six Glasses" (2005), "The Turk" (2002), "The Neptune File" (2000) and "The Victorian Internet" (1998), two of which have been serialized as "Book of the Week" on Radio 4. "The Victorian Internet was made into a Channel 4 documentary, "How The Victorians Wired the World". Tom has previously covered science and technology for a number of newspapers and magazines, including The Guardian, The Daily Telegraph, Wired and Prospect. He holds a degree in engineering and computer science from Oxford University, and is the least musical member of a musical family. He is married and lives in Greenwich, London, with his wife and daughter.

Table of Contents

Preface	xi
The Queen's Gambit Accepted	1	(20)
The Turk's Opening Move	21	(18)
A Most Charming Contraption	39	(16)
Ingenious Devices, Invisible Powers	55	(16)
Dreams of Speech and Reason	71	(18)
Adventures of the Imagination	89	(12)
The Emperor and the Prince	101	(20)
The Province of Intellect	121	(28)
The Wooden Warrior in America	149	(26)
Endgame	175	(18)
The Secrets of the Turk	193	(30)
The Turk Versus Deep Blue	223	(26)
Notes	249	(6)
Sources	255	(6)
Acknowledgments	261	(2)
Index	263