If it flaps like a duck, quacks like a duck, eats like a duck, and excretes like a duck, is it a duck? This was one of the questions that philosophers asked themselves in 18th century when discussing peculiar new curiosity, made by ever-sensational French inventor from Grenoble: The Digesting Duck[1]. The duck by Jacques de Vaucanson was a sophisticated automata that not only imitated the stereotypical movements and sounds of the duck, but claimed to mimic its biological function of digestion. And although the claim was somewhat exaggerated, Vaucanson managed to give a convincing appearance of the process, believing that it is just a matter of time when he could be able to improve his creation. Whether many of his contemporaries were interested in reductionist debate or not, most spectators of the duck, were of the opinion that there is something deeply unsettling and yet appealing about realistic behavior of living creature, embodied by the mechanical object.
[1] Canard Digérateur (The Digesting Duck) by Jacques de Vaucanson, destroyed in the fire (1739)
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