Automaton

“ My eldest hopeful, impelled by that spirit of enterprise and audacity characteristic of nine-year-old boys, had ventured to experiment with the kitchen automaton, and by sheer accident had effected a working connection between the battery and the indicator, and the machine, in “going off,” had given the boy a blow that made him feel, as he expressed it, “like a funny-bone all over.” ”

“ There have been many attempts at solving the mystery of the Automaton. The most general opinion in relation to it, an opinion too not unfrequently adopted by men who should have known better, was, as we have before said, that no immediate human agency was employed—in other words, that the machine was purely a machine and nothing else. Many, however maintained that the exhibiter himself regulated the movements of the figure by mechanical means operating through the feet of the box. Others again, spoke confidently of a magnet. ”

“ In the broadest sense, though, automaton theory can include the study of all mechanisms, discrete or continuous, deterministic or probabilistic or even indeterministic, with a fixed, variable, or indefinitely large number of possible states. ”

“ The flare for science that the original Martin had was transposed into this young man a thousand years distant. But it was a changed world that greeted Martin II. Life had become so ultra-complex and was so definitely based upon the successful continuation of Automaton that now, rather than man utilizing the machines, the machines operated man! To break down this system, evolved through the centuries, required leadership of such proportions that no man had yet measured to its gigantic requirements. Cunningly did the Automatons maneuver their place in existence. ”

“ The cold reasoning, the unemotional logic of these calculating machines recognized that their hold on man would be broken should contact be made with other planets – planets that were ages ahead of Earth and whose wisdom had long since abolished the machines in forming a happier existence. Man would surely see the Utopian existence that machines made impossible, for the Automaton was the nucleus of a vicious circle – man fed the machine so the machine would feed man. ”

“ In playing, the automaton always made choice of the first move and the white pieces. It also played with the left arm—the inventor, as it was said, not having perceived the mistake till his work was too far advanced to alter it. The hand and fingers opened on touching the piece, which it grasped and conveyed to the proper square. After a move made by its antagonist, the automaton paused for a few moments, as if contemplating the game. ”

“ When the person has made a move, no alteration in it can take place: and if a piece be touched, it must be played somewhere. This rule is strictly observed by the Automaton. If its antagonist hesitates to move for a considerable time, it taps smartly on the top of the chest with the right hand, which is constantly extended upon it, as if testifying impatience at his delay.
During the time that the Automaton is in motion, a low sound of clock-work running down is heard, which ceases soon after its arm returns to the cushion; and then its antagonist may make his move. ”

“ It may be that an effort to actually design and implement a system of machines which can construct more machines like themselves would encourage theorists again to attempt to develop a very general automaton theory including as a part of its subject matter the spatial and communicatory interactions of vast and increasing numbers of submachines. ”

“ His name had, through the centuries, become as famous as any statesman. He was the creator of the Automaton.
History related of the cruelties to which he had been subjected because he dared to agitate and even actually attempt the destruction of the very machine he invented. ”

“ These machines can not only increase their memory capacity but can augment their computing power by the construction of additional active computing organs (registers, control units, etc.) and by constructing machines separate from themselves, including duplicates of themselves. Von Neumann had begun to develop a general and logical theory of automata which would have embraced all these machine types. Automaton theory has, however, never achieved the generality he sought, at least not in the sense he seems to have intended. ”

“ If it could be shown that the letters written in his abnormal state were transcripts, not merely verbatim et literatim, but exact in every point, of some which he had written before he was wounded, then a strong case would be made out for the automaton theory. Certainly, few instances have come under the experience of scientific men where a human being has so closely resembled a mere machine as this man appears to do in his abnormal condition. ”

“ Evidently the automaton should respond only to an individual call, as a person responds to a name. Such considerations led me to conclude that the sensitive device of the machine should correspond to the ear rather than the eye of a human being, for in this case its actions could be controlled irrespective of intervening obstacles, regardless of its position relative to the distant controlling apparatus, and, last, but not least, it would remain deaf and unresponsive, like a faithful servant, to all calls but that of its master. ”

“ Therefore, since from the moment that the nature of the calculation to be executed or of the problem to be resolved have been indicated to it, the machine is, by its own intrinsic power, of itself to go through all the intermediate operations which lead to the proposed result, it must exclude all methods of trial and guess-work, and can only admit the direct processes of calculation [4] .
It is necessarily thus; for the machine is not a thinking being, but simply an automaton which acts according to the laws imposed upon it. ”

“ Such an automaton evidently had to have motive power, organs for locomotion, directive organs, and one or more sensitive organs so adapted as to be excited by external stimuli. This machine would, I reasoned, perform its movements in the manner of a living being, for it would have all the chief mechanical characteristics or elements of the same. There was still the capacity for growth, propagation, and, above all, the mind which would be wanting to make the model complete. But growth was not necessary in this case, since a machine could be manufactured full grown, so to speak. ”

“ Here also our party examined the original model of a newly invented travelling automaton, a machine which can, with ease and accuracy, travel at the rate of six miles an hour, ascend acclivities, and turn the narrowest corners, by machinery only, conducted by one of the persons seated within, without the assistance of either horse or steam. ”

“ Stan Ulam, a Polish-American mathematician who had also worked on the Manhattan Project, suggested to von Neumann that the notion of a self-reproducing machine would be amenable to rigorous treatment if it could be described in a "cell space" format - a geometrical grid or tessellation, regular in all dimensions. Within each cell of this system resides a finite state automaton. ”

“ From this overwhelming evidence it can be argued beyond doubt that if Robert-Houdin even constructed the automaton he merely copied figures presented by both his predecessors and his contemporaries, and he was fully aware of the existence of several such automata when he advertised his as an original invention. They were made by many mechanicians. ”

“ An artist, whose talents had enabled him to contrive machinery capable of executing the varied and extensive movements displayed by the Automaton, would surely be desirous of laying open to view as much of the mechanism of his contrivance, while in actual motion, as he could do, consistently with the reservation of his secret ”

“ The circumstance of the Automaton's playing with his left hand cannot have connexion with the operations of the machine, considered merely as such. Any mechanical arrangement which would cause the figure to move, in any given manner, the left arm—could, if reversed, cause it to move, in the same manner, the right. But these principles cannot be extended to the human organization, wherein there is a marked and radical difference in the construction, and, at all events, in the powers, of the right and left arms. ”

“ There were neither planing, slotting, nor shaping machines, and with the exception of very imperfect lathes and a few drills, the preparatory operations of construction were effected entirely by the hands of the workmen. Now, everything is done by machine tools, with a degree of accuracy which the unaided hand could never accomplish. The automaton, or self-acting, machine tool has within itself an almost creative power; in fact, so great are its powers of adaptation, that there is no operation of the human hand that it does not imitate. ”

“ When, a short time previous to the commencement of the game, the Automaton is wound up by the exhibiter as usual, an ear in any degree accustomed to the sounds produced in winding up a system of machinery, will not fail to discover, instantaneously, that the axis turned by the key in the box of the Chess-Player, cannot possibly be connected with either a weight, a spring, or any system of machinery whatever. ”

“ It has selective adaptation (p. 221) responding readily and efficiently to novel and unforeseen circumstances; acquiring new modes of combination and reaction. An automaton that will learn by experience, and adapt itself to conditions not calculated for in its construction, has yet to be made; till it is made, we must deny that organisms are machines. Automatism in the organism implies Memory and Perception. A sudden contact—a sudden noise—a vague form seen in the twilight will excite the mechanism according to its organized experiences. ”

“ In this respect, all kinds of clocks and watches, planetariums, common and smoke jacks, with a vast number of the machines now employed in our cotton, silk, flax, and wool factories, as well as in our dyeing and calico printing works, may be denominated automatic. But the term, automaton, is, in common language, appropriated to that class of mechanical artifices in which the purposely concealed power is made to imitate the arbitrary or voluntary motions of living beings. Human figures, of this kind, are sometimes styled Androides, from the Greek term, like a man. ”

“ How complicated a mechanism is required for insuring these effects will be inferred from the illustration, in which the automaton is shown with its back opened. In the first place a vertical disk will be noticed having at its circumference as many notches as there are letters and signs. Behind this will be seen whole columns of cam-wheels, each of a special shape, placed one above another, and all together forming a sort of spinal column for the automaton. ”

“ One man declares that animals are automata; another that they are conscious automata; and while it is quite possible to hold these views and not practically be in disagreement with the views of ordinary men, or indeed with the views of spiritualist and materialist philosophers, we can never be sure that the advocates of Automatism do not mean what they are generally understood to mean. If a man says that by an automaton he does not here mean a machine, such as a steam-engine or a watch,400 but a vital mechanism which has its parts so adjusted that its actions resemble those of a machine ”

“ Its source of energy is sunlight, its output electricity and high-tension transmission lines. There is bitter debate in Congress over licensing this machine to proliferate over our Western states. The progeny of one robot can easily produce ten times the present total power output of the United States. Legislation is finally passed authorizing the automaton to multiply, with the proviso that each machine shall retain a memory of the original landscape at its site, and if for any reason the site is abandoned the device is programmed to restore it to its original appearance. ”

“ Reference to the treatises of Cicero and the Marquise of Lambert on "Friendship" may be advantageously made for further suggestions as to the manufacture of this automaton. The Academy thinks the invention of this machine ought not to be regarded as either [Pg 26] impossible, or even very difficult, seeing that besides the automata of Regiomontano, Vaucanson, and others, and the one in London which drew figures and portraits, and wrote from dictation, there are machines that can even play chess unassisted. ”

“ The foregoing observations apply to the appearance of the Automaton upon its first introduction into the presence of the spectators.
Maelzel now informs the company that he will disclose to their view the mechanism of the machine. Taking from his pocket a bunch of keys he unlocks with one of them, door marked ~ in the cut above, and throws the cupboard fully open to the inspection of all present. Its whole interior is apparently filled with wheels, pinions, levers, and other machinery, crowded very closely together, so that the eye can penetrate but a little distance into the mass. ”

“ The bird puts out its head to take up the seed, swallows it, digests it, and evacuates it by the ordinary channels.
“All thoughtful persons will understand the difficulty of making my automaton perform so many different movements, as when it stands on its legs and moves its head to the right and left. They will also see that this animal drinks, dabbles with its bill, quacks like the living duck, and, in short, is precisely similar in every respect.”
I was the more surprised at the contents of the memoir, as it was the first trustworthy information I had gained about automata. ”