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Tech

Watch This 1950s Mechanical Mouse Memorize a Maze in Minutes

Claude Shannon, the "founding father" of electronic communications, demonstrates how the mouse works.

Sometimes it's easy to forget that any technology existed prior to the clunky home computer you had as a kid, but of course there have been remarkably intelligent machines for generations.

Take this video, plucked from ​the AT&T Archives and History Center, from the early 1950s (AT&T wasn't sure of the date). Claude Shannon, a mathematical engineer who is ​often cited as the "founding father" of electronic communications, demonstrates how a mechanical mouse named Theseus "memorizes" the twists and turns of a tabletop maze.

When he pulls open the mirror above the table or lifts up the maze, though, you see the real mechanics of the machine: a system of relay circuits that interpret the information transmitted from Theseus's copper whiskers in order to create a mental map of the maze. Once the machine learns the pattern, the mouse can easily find its way through without making even a single mistake.

This early kind of machine learning paved the way for the advancement machine learning developments that allow us to ​instantly translate foreign speech, have a ​robot interpret your bizarre commands, or (best of all) ​beat all your favorite NES games.