David Pescovitz and I just got back from an evening at the Getty Center where Lawrence Weschler interviewed magician and magic historian Ricky Jay. Jay told a lot of great stories about old magicians despite the lousy questions and cues thrown his way by Weschler (author of Mr. Wilson's Cabinet of Wonders, a book about The Museum of Jurassic Technology). The highlight of the evening was a demonstration of the chess playing automaton, a hand-cranked robot that played chess against a volunteer from the audience (David was selected to go on stage as a "referee.") Here's a description of the automaton from James Randi's site. The one we saw didn't have a human stuffed inside the cabinet. Either it was remotely controlled or a confederate was called up to play against the automaton. If anyone else was at the show, I'd love to hear your theory of how it worked. Link Discuss
David Pescovitz and I just
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