AUTOMATA AND INFORMATION

Abstract

In 1713 a lad called Humphrey Potter joined with string the valves of a steam pump so that the pump turned the steam on and off by itself. He had made the first working‐class automaton or robot. Till then steam had been used just to push with; you had to turn it on and off yourself, just as you had to tell a horse when to go or stop. Till then, also, automata had been purely aristocratic; just things to look at.