false 49999 4 During the eighteenth century, the inventor Jacques de Vaucanson created a mechanical duck that seemingly could digest and excrete its food. A few decades later, Europeans fell in love with &#8220;the Turk,&#8221; a celebrated chess-playing machine built in 1769. Thomas Edison was obsessed for years with making a talking mechanical doll, one of his few failures as an inventor. In our own time, scientists at MIT are trying to build a robot with emotions of its own. <br><br>What lies behind our age-old pursuit to create mechanical life? What does this pursuit tell us about human nature? In <b>Edison&#8217;s Eve</b> Gaby Wood traces the history of robotics, from its most brilliant inventions to its most ingenious hoaxes. Joining lively anecdote with literary, cultural, and philosophical insights, Wood offers a captivating and learned work of science and history. 48877 2002 Edison's Eve: A Magical History of the Quest for Mechanical Life total:64|5:13|4:25|3:22|2:3|1:1| 64 238 118 13 3 1 false false Sun Sep 01 00:00:00 -0700 2002 Wed Sep 12 09:32:45 -0700 2007 Wed Sep 12 12:45:43 -0700 2007 Li...more...]]> 3 0 false false Sat Jun 07 07:03:46 -0700 2008 Sat Jun 07 07:05:37 -0700 2008
This is really five essays on incidents in the relationship between being human that are each entertaining in themselves but are not strung together with any over-arching narrative or meaningful theory. Vaucanson's mechanical shitting duck, Kempelen's...more...]]> 3 0 false false Fri Feb 15 00:00:00 -0800 2008 Wed Mar 12 17:48:39 -0700 2008 Wed Mar 12 18:20:35 -0700 2008 Dispelled one notion in particular for me - the idea that there has been an increase in the complexity of our creations and culture with time... ...more...]]> 3 0 false false Tue Jul 07 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Wed Jul 15 16:41:26 -0700 2009 Wed Jul 15 16:44:55 -0700 2009 3 0 false false Wed Apr 01 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Thu Jun 11 12:50:48 -0700 2009 Thu Jun 11 12:53:08 -0700 2009 0 0 false false Sat Nov 22 11:18:02 -0800 2008 Sat Nov 22 11:18:02 -0800 2008 5 0 false false Sun Jun 01 00:00:00 -0700 2008 Tue Jan 20 17:15:22 -0800 2009 Tue Jan 20 17:16:11 -0800 2009 1 4 0 false false Fri Jul 01 00:00:00 -0700 2005 Mon Oct 01 17:36:50 -0700 2007 Mon Oct 01 17:38:57 -0700 2007 artificial intelligence and the history of machines and the men who make them.more...]]> 4 0 false false Mon Sep 01 00:00:00 -0700 2008 Fri Sep 26 06:24:14 -0700 2008 Fri Sep 26 06:25:46 -0700 2008 4 0 false false Tue Aug 01 00:00:00 -0700 2006 Tue Dec 18 20:55:00 -0800 2007 Tue Dec 18 20:55:00 -0800 2007 5 0 false false Sat Jan 10 15:39:04 -0800 2009 Mon Aug 11 01:32:34 -0700 2008 Sat Jan 10 15:39:04 -0800 2009 0 0 false false Tue Nov 20 23:44:59 -0800 2007 Mon Jan 05 06:33:49 -0800 2009 5 0 false false Thu Mar 01 00:00:00 -0800 2007 Tue Jul 03 08:46:16 -0700 2007 Tue Jul 03 08:53:32 -0700 2007 0 0 false false Wed Oct 07 16:07:26 -0700 2009 Wed Oct 07 16:07:26 -0700 2009 3 0 false false Thu Oct 01 17:11:38 -0700 2009 Thu Oct 01 17:11:38 -0700 2009 5 0 false false Thu May 07 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Sat Sep 26 07:17:24 -0700 2009 Sat Sep 26 07:17:24 -0700 2009 0 0 false false Fri Sep 11 16:00:28 -0700 2009 Fri Sep 11 16:00:28 -0700 2009 0 0 false false Mon Jul 27 11:52:01 -0700 2009 Mon Jul 27 11:52:01 -0700 2009 0 0 false false Sun Jul 19 12:52:43 -0700 2009 Sun Jul 19 12:52:43 -0700 2009 4 0 false false Tue Jun 30 17:00:06 -0700 2009 Sat Jul 25 21:44:36 -0700 2009