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"In science fiction one can say a great many things that are unpalatable, … because it's expressed as science fiction you can slip it past their defenses."
- Frederik Pohl
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| Automaton Chess Master | ||
| A man-shaped device that plays flawless chess. |
| One of this nation of mighty conjurors created a man out of brass and wood, and leather, and endowed him with such ingenuity that he would have beaten at chess all the race of mankind, with the exception of the great Caliph, Haroun Alraschid. |
| Technovelgy from The Thousand-and-Second Tale of Scheherazade,
by Edgar Allen Poe. Published by Godey's Lady's Book in 1845 Additional resources -
|
Poe here is writing about the Mechanical Turk, first displayed in 1770. It presented the public with an astonishing automaton playing chess, but which in reality concealed a chess master in its lower cavity, moving pieces with levers and magnets.
Compare to the automaton chess player from Moxon's Master (1911) by Ambrose Bierce.
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'He had travelled the space-lanes of the solar system for the greater part of his life...'
'The dinner was excellent. It was completely vegetarian — grown in specially prepared gardens in this Moon base...'
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'And if it doesn’t work,' inquired Lazarus, 'what does that make us? Sunspots?'
'The Dillard people had performed a miracle and put all the works in a girl-modeled case.'
'Our study of your race has convinced us that you are not fitted to leave your planet in the present state of your civilization.'
