Gather The Turk: The Life And Times Of The Famous 19th Century Chess-Playing Machine Formulated By Tom Standage Readable In Version

you like history, chess, and artificial intelligence, this is the book for you, A great account of the development of the first chess playing automaton and how it helped the development of computers, Informational, well written, interesting all the way through, So, first off, I love Tom Standage's work I liken a lot of it to Malcolm Gladwell in the way he incorporates such interesting information and history while setting it in the time period/culture so effectively and yet doing so in a highly readable way my favorites so far are The Victorian Internet who knew the telegraph could be so fascinating! and A History of the World inGlasses which I love gifting as it appeals to so many people.
That being said, this was not my favorite of his works, This could in fact be because I do not play chess, but I think it was just a harder read as it felt a bit too drawn out overall.


The Turk was a chess playing automaton created by Wolfgang von Kempelen inthat was presented at court to Empress Maria Theresa, Kempelen was a true Renaissance man interested in many different areas, but automatons in particular were of fascination to him, The Turk became an instant sensation and though passing through multiple hands over the years, no one but

the owners seemed to know how it worked, In Standage's The Turk, he explores the history of The Turk and his owners before divulging the inner workings as finally discovered, The parts about Kempelen and his reign with the Turk and Maelzel and his showmanship of the Turk and other automatons along with Vaucanson and even the incorporation of historical figures that came into contact with The Turk were incredibly interesting, the story just lost a little steam at the end until it came to the solution.
Overall though an interesting read about an impressive creation given the time period and its influence going forward, Being that my favorite game has always been chess, this book appealed to me immediately, I've often heard references and stuff to the Turk but I never really knew the history behind it, Quick fun read. I thoroughly enjoyed it. Lmk if anyone ever fancies a game, In an age when chessplaying computers are hardly a novelty, it might be hard to imagine just how remarkable people found Wolfgang von Kempelens automaton, Though little remembered beyond a handful of afficionados today, Kempelens Turk was a remarkable novelty in its day, one that delighted the Habsburg court and was taken on a triumphal tour of Europe.
After Kempelens death, the Turk passed into the hands of a showman named Johann Maelzel, who again toured Europe with it before taking it to the United States, where it remained until its destruction in a Philadelphia fire in.


Tom Standage describes all of this in an entertaininglywritten account of the Turk, After a succinct account of its origins and the background ofth century automata, he covers the Turks history through the decades in an enthralling tale, Perhaps his greatest success is in keeping the explanation of exactly how the machinery actually played chess until the end, thus allowing the reader to share in contemporaries amazement of, and speculation as to, the Turks secrets.
In doing so, he captures some of the wonder that people felt for something so commonplace today an achievement as remarkable in its own way as Kempelens device was in its day.


This sense of wonder is critical to understanding the Turks broader impact on history, As Standage demonstrates, the Turk inspired Edmund Cartwrights automation of weaving, Charles Babbages speculations in early computing, and even Edgar Allan Poes invention of the detective story.
Even after the Turks demise, it continued to inspire attempts to build a chessplaying machine, attempts that the author goes on in to summarize in a concluding chapter.
Such efforts, as Standage shows, address the ongoing question of the relationship between people and machines, one that makes the history of this unusual device relevant to readers even today.
A quick read. Not as enjoyable as Standage's Victorian Internet, but still excellent, I would have liked a bit more of the actual games that were played by the Turk, I understand this could be boring to many readers,

The final chapter adds quite a bit to the story, showing the Turk's influence on modern computing and artificial intelligence, This is the most authoritative account of a remarkableth century contraption which stunned the world with its ability to play chess, The title of the book "The Turk" comes from the sobriquet the device became widely known by, thanks to the oriental garb worn by the lifelike replica "player" which formed part of the apparatus.


Throughout itsyears in operation, the automaton traveled throughout Europe and crossed the Atlantic Ocean to America, wowing audiences wherever it went, It performed in front of royalty, for large crowds, and faced some of the world's top chess masters, Still, noone could definitively deduce how it worked, Was it magnetism Was the inventor controlling it through strings Was there an operator hiding inside Was it a genuine machine Noone could figure it out until decades after the death of the original inventor.


Part of the reason that this book makes for such compelling reading is the answer is not revealed right away, Instead, the reader gets to consider the various theories that were advanced about The Turk, while simultaneously following the events of its career, It reads somehow like a detective novel, and I won't spoil the ending in this review,

It may seem like a highly esoteric subject, but I think anyone with an interest in history would enjoy this book, It is relevent to modernday notions of artificial intelligence, and the cast of characters the Turk encounters includes such notables as Benjamin Franklin, Napoleon Bonaparte, Charles Babbage, and Edgar Allan Poe.


The one downside is that the book does tend to go off on overlong tangents at times, However, this is also part of the appeal, Bravo to Tom Standage for this thoroughly enjoyable little book, This was an entertaining read and a story about a device I had never heard of, It was an interesting story and the author had a great sense of how to slowly reveal things about the "mystery" of how it was done while not quite giving it away.
The book was very light in its consideration of the more challenging issues of man vs, machine intelligence. I didn't view this as a negative so much as the book really focused on the story of the Turk, an entertaining story, .