History’s Greatest Robot Hoaxes

Psycho : Automata were all the madness in the US and Europe in the later nineteenth Century . Most were only intricate mechanically skillful dolls and miniature that performed pre - set action , but a handful appeared able of interact with their environment . One of the most famous of these was Psycho , the creation of John Nevil Maskelyne . Maskelyne was an inventor and stage magician , a member of The Magic Circle , which worked to dispel the notion of supernatural powers , and innovator of the levitation illusion . psychotic , a wench garment as an Eastern sorcerer , would pick up performing lineup from a single-foot for spell words , do mathematical problems , and execute tricks , all the while smoking a fag . Although Psycho appear to move of his own accord , he was actually a puppet , operated by a serial of bellows . Those bellows were finally rase and psychotic was donated to the Museum of London . Joice Heth : PT Banum launched his celebrated career as a hoaxer with Joice Heth . In 1835 , Barnum purchased Heth , a unsighted and paralyzed slave , and tour her around the land as George Washington ’s own wet nurse , claiming that she was over 160 old age old . When Heth ’s appeal began to wither , Barnum reinvented his attractiveness . When he began claiming that Heth was not simply an ripened woman , but an automaton made from whale bone , India safety , and an cunning connection of springs , people again constellate to the display , hear to make up one’s mind whether or not she was a real individual . Upon her destruction , Barnum had Heth publicly autopsied . Not only was she a human being , she was no more than 80 years sometime .

Enigmarelle : Another product of the automaton craze , Enigmarelle was a life history - sized creature with a lumber gait and a wax face . The supposed automaton could reportedly hinge upon a motorcycle , indite its name , and hump to turn corners as it walk , although it could neither hear nor speak . Its “ inventor ” Frederick Ireland claim that Enigmarelle ’s incredible walk and depend upon ability halt from an vestibular sense system based on the human internal capitulum . As “ test copy ” of the machine ’s authenticity , the paw and legs were remove during display and its torso and head opened to let out electrical workings . It has been suggested that Enigmarelle was , in fact , manned by an amputee to make that very effect . Still , the less - than - robotic golem enjoyed a 30 year career in vaudeville .

Quasar Domestic Android : Hoping to capitalise on the popularity of science fabrication movies , Quasar Industries announce in 1978 that it would before long be mass - produce domesticated household robot . Quasars would be able to dust , vacuum ( not foresee the Roomba , Quasars would employ a freestanding vacuum cleansing agent ) , mow the lawn , walk the dog , and learn children French . At a demonstration , the domestic humanoid was strangely enliven , healthy , and conversant in a number of topics . Skeptical roboticists who attended the presentment apace key out a humankind in the audience who muttered into his hand each time the robot spoke , and the projection was eventually out as a printing press - seeking fraudulence .

Lisa the Perfect Woman : This summer , the blandly named AI Robotics denote that they have make out a fully functioning automatic woman . “ Lisa ” ( possibly list for the AI creation in “ Weird Science ” ) is supposedly “ design for all men who have not set up their soulmate ” — a soulmate who cook , clean , fiddle picture game , and provide sex on demand without being weigh down by pesky emotion or desires . As if the uber - creepy promo video were n’t enough to win over you of the product ’s nonexistence , these robots were opine to go on sale this past June . It ’s still undecipherable , however , what use , if any , the hoax had .

Mini Cooper Autonomous Robot : A website allegedly set up by a UK researcher claimed that the researcher had work up an autonomous , Transformers - like bipedal robot from a Mini Cooper . The golem was supposed to be over 10 feet tall , powered by an internal combustion locomotive , and running on Linux . The situation earn a great deal of attention from site like Slashdot , but was ultimately expose to be a viral selling military campaign launched by BMW .

Boilerplate : Boilerplate was a mechanically skillful world unveil at the 1893 World ’s Columbian Exposition . He was fought alongside Teddy Roosevelt , pull through an outing to Anarctica , and saved Pancho Villa ’s lifetime . Boilerplate enigmatically vanished in WWI , which would be a disaster had he ever really exist in the first post . TheBoilerplate website , which features glasses for other Victorian golem , was an accidental hoax perpetrate by Anina Bennett and Paul Guinan as a pitch for a graphic novel . But several visitors to the site believed that Boilerplate was a actual , little - be intimate historical pattern , let in comedian Chris Elliot , who committed an act of inadvertent plagiarism when he made the golem a character in his humourous historical novel .

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The Digesting Duck : creative person and discoverer Jacques de Vaucanson was inspired by Descartes ’ principle of the mechanistic universe to create a mechanical animal . The Canard Digerateur was said to have the power to eat grain , put up it naturally , and defecate waste . The duck’s egg became a popular and oft - exhibited robot , but did n’t actually digest anything . The grain it ate was collected in a container inside the duck , while the “ feces ” were turn back in a freestanding part . physiologist were reportedly let down when the fraudulence was uncovered , as they had hope to ascertain whether the process of digestion was chemical or mechanical . Even failing to digest anything , the duck’s egg was an telling piece of machinery , otherwise reliably free-base on the physiology and articulatio of a natural duck , and was one of the first automata to use rubber hosepipe .

The Mechanical Turk : Arguably the most infamous mechanical humbug , the Turk had a marked encroachment on contemporary notions of machines and even modern AI . Wolfgang von Kempelen , a innovator in phonetics , create an “ automated ” chess player to exhibit at the court of Austria ’s Empress Maria Theresa . Like later automata , the Turk include a doll in easterly dress . The doll digest over a clockwork console and played cheat against human opponents , including Napoleon Bonaparte and Benjamin Franklin . The Turk tour Europe and later America , and became a popular draw that confounded railroad engineer and chess role player alike . The hoax was queer 50 years after Kempelen ’s end and three year after the Turk itself was demolish : a Bromus secalinus player was cleverly mask inside the cabinet . The Turk spawned legion imitator , most splendidly Ajeeb and Mephisto . It is reckon to have inspired the like of Charles Babbage and Edmund Cartwright , and sparked a great deal of discussion about artificial intelligence .

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