Robotics Reference
In-Depth Information
of Boolean logic could be seen as the ON and OFF states of an elec-
tric switch. For this pioneering work, important for the functioning of
both telephones and computers, Shannon received his MSc
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in 1940,
at the same time as he was presented with his PhD for a thesis on the
application of Boolean algebra to genetics.
Shannon was also the pioneer of Information Theory, which under-
lies all modern electronic communication, and it is his work in that field
for which he is best known.
Scientific American
went so far as to re-
fer to his paper, “A Mathematical Theory of Communication”, as the
“Magna Carta of the information age”. Shannon also made enormously
significant contributions to AI by his research on computer learning and
game-playing. His seminal paper on computer Chess and its influence
on the field are discussed in Chapter 3.
Early Games Machines
Von Kempelen's Chess Automaton
The earliest “thinking machines” appeared to play Chess, and play it
rather well, but they were elaborate hoaxes. The best known of these was
the Chess Automaton, designed and built in 1790 by Baron Wolfgang
von Kempelen, who held the title of Counsellor on Mechanics to the
Royal Chamber in Vienna. When he first had his new invention wheeled
into court, the amused spectators saw a life-sized figure, dressed as a Turk,
seated behind a chest that was about four feet long, two feet wide and
three feet high. On top of the chest was screwed a chessboard. Baron
von Kempelen proudly announced that his Automaton, without any help
whatsoever from himself, would play and probably defeat any member
of the audience. Like a conjuror, he would open and close doors in
the machine, to “prove” that no person could be possibly be concealed
inside it.
Von Kempelen toured Europe with his machine, playing in Paris,
London, Berlin and other cities. Critics suggested, quite correctly of
course, that someone was hidden inside the machine, though no-one
was able to guess all the details.
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Shannon's MSc thesis is widely regarded as one of the most important master's theses ever
written, and was awarded the annual Alfred Noble Prize of the combined engineering societies of
the United States.
