The 18th Century Automaton Who Beat Napoleon

The Museum of Automatons is packed with automatons... mechanical figures that move and speak.  Imagine what Walt Disney would have designed in the 18th century - automatons were attempts to mimic human figures in remarkable ways.  Really, just the first glimpse at the future of robotics...or at least robots that would mimic humans and other animals.  But automatons weren’t just gifts wealthy European families commissioned and gifted to others.  An automaton like some exhibited here defeated Napoleon at the height of his military and political power. But it didn’t beat him on the battlefield. It defeated him on a chess board. (See Full Show notes and script  at mydarkpath.com)


REFERENCES/ADDITIONAL READING:

Levitt, Gerald M. The Turk, Chess Automaton (Jefferson, N.C.: McFarland, 2000)

Standage, Tom: The Turk: The Life and Times of the Famous Eighteenth-Century Chess-Playing Machine (New York: Walker, 2002), 22–23.

MUSIC:

Prelude - Filthy, Brian Lowry
Intro - Brenner, Falls
Part 1 - Fleeting, Alice in Winter
Part 2 - Hidden Beneath, Michael Briguglio
Part 3 - Morning Call, Marie
Part 4 - Birds of Prey, Wicked Cinema
Rabbit Hole - Perfect Spades, Third Age & Nu Alkemi$t

Read MF Thomas' novels

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A Sickness in Time https://amzn.to/41apSPK
Seeing by Moonlight ...