“A rival to Prometheus, [Vaucanson] seemed to steal the heavenly fires in his search to give life.” –Voltaire
Just got reminded to the Mechanical Duck of Jacques de Vaucanson by hearing the saying “if it walks like a duck and quacks like a duck…” where is probably the origin of that saying. The Mechanical Duck entered into philosophical debates during the enlightenment questioning what was life, in essence, if the mechanical duck imitated life close enough was it therefore alive or not.
This is obviously very similar to the debates today about AI and at what point will it be considered to “be alive” which by the way has had the goal post continually moved since playing chess and understanding and replying to speech (Alexa) were the test in the past. It would be interesting to go back to the arguments of the Enlightenment and contrast it with those of contemporaries.