How 'robots' of the Enlightenment era gave us an early glimpse of automation
Thursday, September 29, 2016 - 02:06
in Psychology & Sociology
The Who's lead singer Roger Daltrey and his wife Heather are in Edinburgh, Scotland to auction a selection of rare mechanical devices called automata. Automata are models of people or animals from previous centuries that appear to be moving independently but are actually animated by a hidden clockwork mechanism. They were a form of artificial intelligence that took the world by storm long before the digital age. For too many of us, their fascinating story has been forgotten.