Planes don't flap their wings: does AI work like a brain? – Grace Lindsay Aeon Ideas

In 1739, Parisians flocked to see an exhibition of automata by the French inventor Jacques de Vaucanson performing feats assumed impossible by machines. In addition to human-like flute and drum players, the collection contained a golden duck, standing on a pedestal, quacking and defecating. It was, in fact, a digesting duck. When offered pellets by the exhibitor, it would pick them out of his hand and consume them with a gulp. Vaucanson died in 1782 with his reputation as a trailblazer in artificial digestion intact.