The Mechanical Turk: How a Chess-playing Hoax Inspired Real Computers
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(Credit: Karl Gottlieb von Windisch/Wikimedia Commons. Public domain image)
In 1783, an autonomous machine beat Benjamin Franklin in a game of chess. Well, at least that’s what he was led to believe.
Franklin’s opponent was a life-size, humanlike figure seated at a large wooden cabinet, supposedly rigged with machinery that made it capable of playing a game of chess without human support. It was known as the Turk.
Over 230 years after the automaton played its match in Paris agai
In 1783, an autonomous machine beat Benjamin Franklin in a game of chess. Well, at least that’s what he was led to believe.
Franklin’s opponent was a life-size, humanlike figure seated at a large wooden cabinet, supposedly rigged with machinery that made it capable of playing a game of chess without human support. It was known as the Turk.
Over 230 years after the automaton played its match in Paris agai