[game_preservation] Babbage's Tic-Tac-Toe Machine

[Andrew Armstrong]

Fascinating research Devin, really interesting, and yeah, I wonder about 
those diagrams.

Andrew

On 31/05/2010 18:33, Devin Monnens wrote:

> Found a reference to Babbage's Tic-Tac-Toe machine in a book on 

> programming computers to play games. The relevant section is found 

> towards the end of Chapter 34 of Babbage's 1864 book /Passages from 

> the Life of a Philosopher/. The book has been republished several 

> times and is now in the public domain. It's not on Project Gutenberg 

> yet, but there's a Google Book 

> <http://books.google.com/books?id=Fa1JAAAAMAAJ&pg=PA441&lpg=PA441&dq=babbage+%22contributions+to+human+knowledge&source=bl&ots=w0aua3ktVB&sig=1qTrgJg5849hMnGHRRV7tASa4zE&hl=en&ei=Zt8DTN-2B4P6NaLBrTs&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=1&ved=0CBkQ6AEwAA#v=onepage&q&f=false> beginning 

> Page 465.

>

> In it, Babbage describes how he designed the machine as a means of 

> funding his Analytical Engine. He noted that machines could play any 

> game of 'purely intellectual skill', and further that the automaton 

> could win provided it did not make a mistake. He describes an 

> algorithm by which the game would calculate each move (and later how 

> it could choose between two or three equally good moves). Quickly 

> discovering chess would be far too complex for his machines and so 

> settled on Tic-Tac-Toe. Babbage states he drew up some blueprints and 

> describes how the machine would look. His proposal was for the 

> production of six machines, two for three locations (one is a backup 

> in case of parts failure). The machine was never built because he 

> discovered it would take too much of his time to build and maintain 

> and would probably not generate a profit.

>

> I suppose the question I have is whether those blueprints still exist. 

> Perhaps some graduate student might develop an interest in building 

> one, but if the diagrams still exist today, they would be the earliest 

> documentation of a game-playing computer (or at the very least, a 

> mechanical device for same).

>

> -Devin

>

> -- 

> Devin Monnens

> www.deserthat.com <http://www.deserthat.com>

>

> The sleep of Reason produces monsters.

>

>

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