1877: “Who will win the laurel by inventing a ‘thinking machine’?”

Describing the newly introduced “Type Writer” in 1877, one author writes, “Alas for poor clerks and legal scriveners! With Babbage’s calculating machine perfected, and the ‘type-writer’ complete and in working order, there is only one more invention to smash this shivering universe into ‘smithereens.’ Who will win the laurel by inventing a ‘thinking machine’? — Who?”

With the introduction of AI in the 21st century, we are finally able to answer that question!

The Irish Builder (Dublin, Ireland), October 1, 1877 –

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