Edger Allan Poe essay debunking chess-playing automaton.

[Ladewig]

Chessbase reprint of article. (http://www.chessbase.com/columns/column.asp?pid=103)

It is an excellent example of paying attention to what one sees and not what one is told.

[UnrepentantSinner]

Originally posted by Ladewig
Chessbase reprint of article. (http://www.chessbase.com/columns/column.asp?pid=103)

It is an excellent example of paying attention to what one sees and not what one is told.

That was absolutely fascinating. Thanks for sharing it with us.

I never cease to be amazed at some of the stuff they came up with back then. Even though it was a fraud for it's stated purpose, the automaton was a very clever creation.

[Suezoled]

I have more and more respect for this man who wrote fabulously creepy stories and supposedly died of alcoholism (although other indications point to encephelactic rabies).

Hooray for the tragic skeptic!

[T'ai Chi]

Sweet!

(in no particular order)

1. I love chess.
2. I love skepticism.
3. I love Poe.

DAYAM! :)

[teddygrahams]

Randi Commentary on the Automaton (http://www.randi.org/jr/01-19-2000.html)

I have a chess playing robot ... but it runs on this newfangled thing called "electricity."

[Cecil]

Edger Allan Poe essay debunking chess-playing automaton. They have machines now that play chess AND debunk Edgar Allen Poe essays? Wow, technology these days... :D

[Iconoclast]

That's very cool, however Poe made one blunder in his bedunking of the device, namely:

Originally posted by Edgar Allan Poe
A little consideration will convince any one that the difficulty of making a machine beat all games, Is not in the least degree greater, as regards the principle of the operations necessary, than that of making it beat a single game.

[wayrad]

That was cool, thanks for posting the link! Am I correct in thinking that Poe's explanation of the hoax is the generally accepted one now? It certainly makes more sense than the one that John Dickson Carr (not the world's most coherent thinker, apparently) used as the premise for "The Crooked Hinge".

[dharlow]

Ah, but Poe was wrong in his theory on the automaton and how it worked. And that seems the crux of debate amongst serious scholars of the paranormal. It is not so much an issue of real or unreal, but rather of how such things can be accomplished. Far too often, dogmatic skeptics subscribe to completely untenable theories to explain difficult unknowns. And these silly theories only strengthen the ignorant proponents of paranormal hypotheses.

[wayrad]

I found an interesting link to a chronology of the Turk:
http://www.geocities.com/SiliconValley/Lab/7378/automat.htm
It even has the names of some of the operators. Actually, the secret does not appear to have been particularly well kept. I was also interested to see that Carr's explanation was first proposed by Houdin. Still seems silly to me though - I mean, one high-level chess-playing double amputee maybe, but an 85-year supply of them? Even though Houdin never saw the Turk in action, seems like he could do better.

edited to add: Disappointingly, the above source also indicates Poe's solution may have been borrowed without attribution from an earlier article by Robert Willis.:(

[NoZed Avenger]

Originally posted by wayrad


edited to add: Disappointingly, the above source also indicates Poe's solution may have been borrowed without attribution from an earlier article by Robert Willis.:(

True. The Great Chess Automaton by Charles Michael Carroll, also shows that portions of Poe's article were lifted from earlier sources: David Brewster's Letters on Natural Magic (1832), Edinburgh Encyclopedia, (1830). While cited as sources, fairly large portion of text were quoted without attribution. Some information in the article can be further back-tracked, in part, to Robert Willis.

Very disappointing, given the great deal of excitement most biographers, etc. show over his supposed analysis. He does add points of his own, but the failure to give the proper attributions is still disappointing, IMO.