the __earthinc

I’ve updated __earth Inc.’s source code last week. As you can see, the scroll bar has been changed to suit the current __earth Inc.’s design. Admittedly, I didn’t construct the code by myself but it was taken from a site. However, I didn’t take the whole lot of the code and paste it into the source code but rather I did some alteration of myself.

Not much happened in my life except that I am getting too indiscipline for my own good. Throughout the weeks, I’d promised myself to revise my mathematics but that promise was eroded easily. Although the current math level to my pleasure does not provide a significant challenge to me, such complacency is dangerous. It was this sort of complacency that made me lost an A, in fact, a few A’s for the past few semesters.

Nevertheless, my life has started to resemble the way I had lived it a few years ago. I’m starting to read comics; currently, my taste stands with Darkhorse Comics instead of Marvel and books. Usually, I would read fantasy and science fiction novels but now, the taste changed to something more serious.

During the Fourth of July, a few friends of mine accompanied me to Borders Bookstore nearby Ann Arbor’s downtown. The first section that I visited was as always, fantasy and science fiction section. I was searching for Kim Robinson’s Blue Mars, which is the last installment of the Martian trilogy. It’s one of the best sci-fi novels ever written last decade.

I was about to buy Blue Mars until I found this newly released book by Tom Standage entitled “The Turk” under the chess section. I couldn’t tell why did I suddenly invested such an interest at the chess section but I sat there for nearly an hour and in effect, managed to finished off a few chapters. Later, I bought the book for USD 25. What made me bought the book was not because it looks impressive. The reason was because it discusses about The Turk, a name that strike a chord inside of my head.

Back when I was a small boy, I was introduced to the game of chess by my uncle. I must say that I am not an expert player but playing chess provide a satisfaction that no other game could present. On the other hand, one of my favorite subjects is history. Therefore, I am quite please to say that I have a splitter knowledge of chess history even when I was about 12 years old. It was during this time that I heard the machine called The Turk.

The Turk was a machine, an automaton to be precise, that could play chess; a mechanical being that could think on its own, built by Wolfgang Von Kempelen back during the 18th century. The idea of a being that consists only gears and metals could play chess is absurd but somehow in history, The Turk was a formidable chess player. For about one century, the Europeans were tricked into believing that this mechanical being could think on its own.

I myself was not well-versed in The Turk’s history but at the moment I read the book, my first thought was that someone must be inside of the machine. I believe that a machine that was made out of just bolts and nuts couldn’t think for itself. The idea of the machine such as that could play chess is an insult to human intelligence. Nevertheless, after reading a few chapters, the author somehow managed to convince me to seriously think that the automaton could think for itself, which was foolish of me. Only near the end of the book did the author revealed that the automaton was a fraud. Nevertheless, Francis Willis, one of The Turk scrutinizer thought that, as mentioned in the book:

“…the Turk as a mechanical puzzle to be solved, rather than a fraud to be uncovered.”

Truly, whether it was a hoax or not, The Turk itself was designed by an excellent man whom managed to keep the secret on how The Turk works to his death. If you are curious of what empowered The Turk, read the book. You’ll be surprised at the answer no matter how obvious the answer is.

Yet, after analyzing the content of the book, I believe the main idea of the book is not about the rich history of The Turk which had played against well-known figure nor about the secret that Kempelen kept. The book actually discusses about human dreams of building a machine that could think for its own good; an artificial intelligence. Quoting the book, this in turn paraphrased Lady Byron in London:

“Unlike the machines of the industrial revolution, which replace human physical activity, this fragment of the Difference Engine, like the Turk, raised the possibility that machine might eventually be capable of replacing mental activity too.”

Latter part of the book, there is a chapter that entitled “The Turk versus Deep Blue” which I haven’t read yet but the title itself convinced me that the main idea of the book concerns about artificial intelligence rather than the “Promethean heat” that empowered The Turk.

Be mindful, this book is not a sci-fi. It’s an investigative book that discuss real history.

Read this for a related post.