The Turk!

Anybody else remember reading about this amazing machine? Granted it was operated via another human player and had no real AI, it was still a fantastic design (mechanically) and a precursor to the actual chess computers we have today. Interesting as well to note that quetions regarding the capacities of artificial intelligence were in question back in the 1700s.

http://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/object-of-intrigue-the-turk?utm_source=facebook.com&utm_medium=atlas-page

Wow, that comment was absurdly ignorant. I mean that last sentence is just flat-out wrong reducto ad absurdum.

There were plenty of machines around back then that led people to contemplate the possibilities of artificial intelligence - there are many ponderous essays I've read from around that period theorizing such machines. Intelligence isn't something that can be accurately measured, that seems to be a divisive argument but that's where I stand on it. However, you can clearly define that which is intelligent and that which is not. Unless that rock is sentient, it isn't intelligent. It's just a solid mineral... I hope for your sake you were trolling.

They're composed of matter as is everything but they cannot think. I know what argument you're attempting to make, and I respect that you're trying to rationalize such an irrational thought, but it just doesn't work at all. Intelligence is defined by the ability to acquire and use knowledge and skills. Can a rock do this?

Lmao that was a good one, cheers :P

Read this book the year it came out or perhaps the following year. Http://www.amazon.com/The-Turk-Eighteenth-Century-Chess-Playing-Machine/dp/B000HWZ28Q

Twenty-five years ago, I read short fiction by Edgar Allan Poe and by Ambrose Bierce that dealt with chess playing machines. Poe also wrote a work of nonfiction concerning the Turk, as I recall.

Yeah Poe's writings on it were very, very detailed. Like, ridiculously so. Read a little bit of it myself

lol do you seriously believe your own bullshit? Does anybody who's following this thread subscribe to such pretentious arguments? A rock isn't fooling anybody, it lacks the capacity to think... the brain is composed of particles but is much more than you make it sound - I mean we definitely have intent and desire. For example, you've intended to try to sell me a crock of shit in this thread, either for your own personal amusement because you're a troll or you really are just that pretentious

Also a 'factoid' is unverified or false or spurious, but which is presented to appear as a true fact. What you applied it to makes sense, but just saying, you arbitrarily throw around words you clearly don't know.

The forces that cause the rock to move are gravity you fucking halfwit lol. That is no correlation to intelligence. Man you MUST be trolling. Either way, not responding to you from here on out.

Wow! What's an inanimate object, George?

Can people be reported on here for stupidity?

If I kick a rock, gravity does not cause it to move, but it does play its part in ceasing the movement.

It most certainly does play a role in making it move. There are other factors like velocity and trajectory etc., but gravity determines how easily it moves.

It most certainly does play a role in making it move. There are other factors like velocity and trajectory etc., but gravity determines how easily it moves.

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The force of one body acting on another body moves the rock. That's sorta what fiveofswords was getting at with:

Fiveofswords 

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Gravity provides resistance that slows and ultimately stops the movement. Gravity also facilitates the gait that led up to the kick, but that is a secondary factor in terms of the movement of the rock.

Velocity and trajectory are measures of its movement, not forces causing it to move.

HERE is source material for the Turk, Ajeeb and Mephisto, all automatons.

True. Gravity is not always the cause of it stopping. Moreover, if I kick it off a cliff, gravity will be the principal cause of its movement.

Ordinarily, when I kick a rock down the road where I am walking my boxers, the basic physics are as I described.

 

I think that gravity is trying to give the rock a hug. After resisting for a spell, the rock surrenders to the embrace and stops.