Machinamenta: The thousand year quest to build a creative machine

Machinamenta is an exploration of the ancient roots of machines which are designed to be creative. It begins with the divination systems of prehistoric Africa, which followed mathematical principles to generate unique utterances in response to the questions of petitioners. Tracing the influence of philosophers and artists, inventors and scientists, musicians and mystics, it goes on to explore machines that, before the dawn of the twentieth century, were designed to write poetry, compose new melodies, understand language, prove theorems, and create artwork. It concludes with an examination of the current and future prospects for someday building a machine that can truly be called creative.