#digesting duck

[thesobsister]

"An American artist's (mistaken) drawing of how the Digesting Duck may have worked"

"The Canard Digérateur, or Digesting Duck, was an automaton in the form of a duck, created by Jacques de Vaucanson and unveiled on 30 May 1764 in France."

[lark-of-the-sanguine]

Of an Automatick Waterfowl

Shout out to Jacques de Vaucanson! What a freak :)

Pastiche transcription below

There exist but two Souls what might govern her, and only, in their case, by means of unrelenting Curiosity; their own, for what greater Purpose their Creation shall serve, and hers, for where the Line may lead her.

[ofelsewhere]

A false diagram of the inner working of Jaucques de Vaucanson's mechanical automaton Canard Digérateur or, Digesting Duck. Vaucanson built the mechanical mallard in 1739 in an attempt to recreate a functioning automated digestive track that would eat, metabolize, and defecate on its own. 

Though the creation of a fully automated digestive system was never achieved, the final version of the Digesting Duck gave the appearance of a fully working system, storing food placed into its mouth, and expelling pre-loaded waste out the other end. 

Of the infamous automaton, Voltaire famously remarked, "Sans...le canard de Vaucanson vous n'auriez rien qui fit ressouvenir de la gloire de la France." or  "Without...the duck of Vaucanson, you will have nothing to remind you of the glory of France." 

More info here 

[jonathansalembaskin-blog]

Skynet Begun

Today we gave the machines their start.

Don Wetzel says the idea for the automated teller machine, or “ATM,” came to him while standing in line at a Dallas bank. The services he needed were based wholly on numbers and required no nuanced judgment, and as…

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