In

the seminal paper on AI, titled Computing Machinery and Intelligence, Alan Turing famously asked: “Can machines think?” — or, more accurately, can machines successfully imitate thought?

70 years later, the answer is still “no,” as a machine hasn’t passed the Turing test.

Turing clarifies that he’s interested in machines that “are intended to carry out any operations which could be done by a human computer.” In other words, he’s interested in complex digital machines.

Since the achievement of a thinking digital machine is a matter of the evolution of machines, it reasons to start at the beginning of machine history.

The History of Machines

A machine is a device that does work. In engineering terms, work means transferring energy from one object to another. Machines enable us to apply more force, and/or do it more efficiently, resulting in more work being done.

The evolution of Boston Dynamics’ robots from 2009 to 2019.

Modern machines — like the above Boston Dynamics robot, _Atlas — _use hundreds of parts, including hydraulic joints, pistons, gears, valves, and so on to accomplish complex tasks, such as self-correcting stabilization, or even backflips.

Simple Machines

However, “simple machines” fit our earlier definition as well, including wheels, levers, pulleys, inclined planes, wedges, and screws. In fact, all mechanical machines are made of some combination of those six simple machines.

Atlas is not just a mechanical machine, but also a digital one.

Simple mechanical machines are millions of years old. For instance, “stonecutting tools [a type of wedge] are as old as human society,” and archaeologists have found stone tools “from 1.5 to 2 million years ago.”

Complex Machines

Combinations of simple machines could be used to make everything from a wheelbarrow to a bicycle to a mechanical robot.

In fact, records of mechanical robots date back to over 3,000 years ago.

The Daoist text Lieh-tzu_, _written in the 5th century BCE, includes an account of a much earlier meeting between King Mu of the Zhou Dynasty (1023–957 BCE) and an engineer named Yen Shi. Yen Shi presented the king with a life-sized, human-shaped mechanical automaton:

“The king stared at the figure in astonishment. It walked with rapid strides, moving its head up and down, so that anyone would have taken it for a live human being. The artificer touched its chin, and it began singing, perfectly in tune. He touched its hand, and it began posturing, keeping perfect time… As the performance was drawing to an end, the robot winked its eye and made advances to the ladies in attendance, whereupon the king became incensed and would have had Yen Shi executed on the spot had not the latter, in mortal fear, instantly taken the robot to pieces to let him see what it really was. And, indeed, it turned out to be only a construction of leather, wood, glue and lacquer…”

Mechanical heart diagram. Date unknown.

The king asked: “Can it be that human skill [in creating a machine] is on a par with that of the great Author of Nature [God]?”

In other words, Turing’s question of whether machines can imitate humans is actually thousands of years old.

At the same time, Greek scientists were creating a wide range of automata. Archytas (c. 428–347 BC) created a mechanical bird that could fly some 200 meters, described as an artificial, steam-propelled flying device in the shape of a bird.

“Archytas made a wooden model of a dove with such mechanical ingenuity and art that it flew.”

Some modern historians believe it may have been aided by suspension from wires, but in any case, it was a clear attempt to create a machine.

Another Greek scientist, Daedalus, created statues that moved:

“Daedalus was said to have created statues that were so lifelike that they could move by themselves.”

The “first cuckoo clock” was described in the book The Rise and Fall of Alexandria: Birthplace of the Modern World (page 132):

“Soon Ctesibius’s clocks were smothered in stopcocks and valves, controlling a host of devices from bells to puppets to mechanical doves that sang to mark the passing of each hour — the very first cuckoo clock!”

Over the centuries, more and more complex contraptions were used to create automata, such as wind-powered moving machines.

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