by Tom Standage
First published 2002
In 1769, an engineer in Vienna boasts he can build a chess-playing automaton to outperform the court's best players. His creation, the Turk, becomes a sensation, touring Europe and captivating luminaries like Benjamin Franklin and Napoleon. But is the Turk truly an artificial intelligence, or a clever illusion? The Turk's colorful history spans magic, the rise of machines, and the early days of AI, as it encounters a diverse cast including Ludwig van Beethoven and Edgar Allan Poe. Uncovering the Turk's secrets reveals the intriguing origins of our modern technological age.
Genres: history, science, 20th-century, non-fiction, artificial-intelligence, 19th-century
Vibes: suspenseful, thought-provoking
Tropes: deception, hoaxes
Period: 1769, 19th-century
272 pages · Hardcover · Walker Books