click to view more

Edison's Eve: Edison's Eve: A Magical History of the Quest for Mechanical Life

by Edison's Eve: Edison's Eve: A Magical History of the Quest for Mechanical Life

$19.82

List Price: $20.00
Save: $0.18 (0%)
add to favourite
  • In Stock - Guaranteed to ship in 24 hours with Free Online tracking.
  • FREE DELIVERY by Wednesday, April 23, 2025 5:36:30 AM UTC
  • 24/24 Online
  • Yes High Speed
  • Yes Protection
Last update:

Description

During the eighteenth century, the inventor Jacques de Vaucanson created a mechanical duck that seemingly could digest and excrete its food. A few decades later, Europeans fell in love with "the Turk," a celebrated chess-playing machine built in 1769. Thomas Edison was obsessed for years with making a talking mechanical doll, one of his few failures as an inventor. In our own time, scientists at MIT are trying to build a robot with emotions of its own.

What lies behind our age-old pursuit to create mechanical life? What does this pursuit tell us about human nature? In Edison's Eve Gaby Wood traces the history of robotics, from its most brilliant inventions to its most ingenious hoaxes. Joining lively anecdote with literary, cultural, and philosophical insights, Wood offers a captivating and learned work of science and history.

Last updated on

Product Details

  • Knopf Doubleday Publishin Brand
  • Jul 8, 2003 Pub Date:
  • 9781400031580 ISBN-13:
  • 1400031583 ISBN-10:
  • English Language
  • 8 in * 0.78 in * 5.1 in Dimensions:
  • 1 lb Weight: