People You May Know: Jacques de Vaucanson

[Bill Floyd]

Who's to say what is profane?  Government functionaries, apparently, when they found his workshop dedicated to the creation of automatons that were by most reports as lifelike as anything that would come along until Walt Disney made creaking marionettes of the Founding Fathers.

Did I mention that this was in the 1700s?

His famous duck featured over 400 moving parts in each wing; it ate and shat, convincingly; and featured the first flexible rubber tube ever invented.  But when he attempted to modernize and automate the French textile industry (partly by using punch-cards, the same methodology which would later form the basis of the first computers--did I mention that this was in 1745?) the weavers quacked and threw stones at him in the street.

An early adventurer in the uncanny valley, where profanities might become miracles, where pipers lead us into mountainsides among beckoning robots whose anatomies trace our faltering evolution, mapped in silvershot eyes.        

[Mike Handley]

Way cool.

[Jamie Hogan]

What everyone else said about the education we're getting through these pieces, but somebody's gotta say something about the Floydian sixth. Seriously dude, you could teach a freaking class on how to close out a six.

[Bill Floyd]

@Angela: I know everyone's tired of me rhapsodizing about this book, but since you asked... I discovered Vaucanson in Pynchon's Mason & Dixon, which, in addition to being funny and beautiful and moving, contained a wealth of historical tidbits.

In Pynchon's telling, Vaucanson had taken the next logical step and attempted to imbue his creation with feelings and thought.  Thusly made sentient, the duck developed an obsession with its natural nemesis--who else?--the Greatest Chef in France (who had killed and cooked and served countless of the duck's brethren).  The chef, Armaund, was forced to flee Europe for the wilds of colonial America, where he became the cook for Mason & Dixon's surveying expedition.  The duck, undaunted, pursued the chef, but in a typically Pynchon-esque twist, fell in love with the chef and became his protector.  

Like I say, it's a pretty cool book. 

[bolton carley]

bill - love these characters i'm learning about because of you.  i think we often fear what is too close to us.  these are the people i am amazed by.  thanks for showing us these snapshots.

and angela - that freaking cracked me up.

[Joey Delgado]

Whoa! This is amazing.

[Angela]

With respect to the uncanny valley, if a robot can look like me, it won't be long before it looks better than me, and then we'll all begin to think we are ugly, and they will win the game.

Sorry, I just don't trust them yet.  Maybe when they iron my shirts and scrub the bathroom I'll feel differently.

But seriously, that duck is freaky, and the fact that it was made in the 1700's is mind blowing.  Why haven't I heard of this guy before?  How did you find out about him?

[Gita]

Now I am eager to see what has been preserved of his work.  And don't you HATE  bureaucrats or religious figures who squelched knowledge and innovation in years gone by? It makes me angry that this man's genius was not fostered. Grrr.

[Bill Floyd]

Prepare to be impressed here.