The Works of Edgar Allan Poe — Volume 4Poe, Edgar Allan
General
The Works of Edgar Allan Poe — Volume 4
Poe, Edgar Allan
American fiction -- 19th century; Fantasy fiction; Horror tales, American; Short stories
2. When the Automaton is about to move a piece, a distinct motion
is observable just beneath the left shoulder, and which motion
agitates in a slight degree, the drapery covering the front of
the left shoulder. This motion invariably precedes, by about two
seconds, the movement of the arm itself—and the arm never, in any
instance, moves without this preparatory motion in the shoulder.
Now let the antagonist move a piece, and let the corresponding
move be made by Maelzel, as usual, upon the board of the
Automaton. Then let the antagonist narrowly watch the Automaton,
until he detect the preparatory motion in the shoulder.
Immediately upon detecting this motion, and before the arm itself
begins to move, let him withdraw his piece, as if perceiving an
error in his manœuvre. It will then be seen that the movement of
the arm, which, in all other cases, immediately succeeds the
motion in the shoulder, is withheld—is not made—although Maelzel
has not yet performed, on the board of the Automaton, any move
corresponding to the withdrawal of the antagonist. In this case,
that the Automaton was about to move is evident—and that he did
not move, was an effect plainly produced by the withdrawal of the
antagonist, and without any intervention of Maelzel.
This fact fully proves, 1—that the intervention of Maelzel, in
performing the moves of the antagonist on the board of the
Automaton, is not essential to the movements of the Automaton,
2—that its movements are regulated by _mind—_by some person who
sees the board of the antagonist, 3—that its movements are not
regulated by the mind of Maelzel, whose back was turned towards
the antagonist at the withdrawal of his move.
3. The Automaton does not invariably win the game. Were the
machine a pure machine this would not be the case—it would always
win. The _principle _being discovered by which a machine can be
made to _play _a game of chess, an extension of the same
principle would enable it to win a game—a farther extension would
enable it to win _all _games—that is, to beat any possible game
of an antagonist. A little consideration will convince any one
that the difficulty of making a machine beat all games, Is not in
the least degree greater, as regards the principle of the
operations necessary, than that of making it beat a single game.
If then we regard the Chess-Player as a machine, we must suppose,
(what is highly improbable,) that its inventor preferred leaving
it incomplete to perfecting it—a supposition rendered still more
absurd, when we reflect that the leaving it incomplete would
afford an argument against the possibility of its being a pure
machine—the very argument we now adduce.
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