The first learning machine: Claude Shannon’s “Theseus" | Debbie Douglas | TEDxMIT

Описание: Step inside the MIT Museum as curator Deborah G. Douglas resurrects Claude Shannon’s legendary 1950 “Theseus” maze‑solving mouse—the electromechanical demo that introduced the world to machine learning decades before the term existed. In this hands‑on session Douglas:

Recounts Shannon’s journey from his MIT master’s thesis (where he coined the “bit”) to Bell Labs breakthroughs in information theory and cryptography.

Reveals how Shannon and his wife Betty turned a Christmas Meccano set and surplus relays into a self‑learning mouse that stunned LIFE and TIME audiences.

Shows the painstaking restoration and Arduino‑powered replica that now lets visitors watch Theseus explore, learn, and adapt in real time.

Explains why this playful gadget cements Shannon’s place not just in communication theory, but at the dawn of artificial intelligence.

Witness the moment the replica rediscovers its cheese, learn how museum curators reverse‑engineer history, and appreciate the playful genius whose “useless” experiments reshaped our digital century. Debbie Douglass arrived at the MIT Museum. Deborah Douglas has a dual role—Senior Director of Collections and Curator of Science and Technology. And she not only collects and curates, but also serves as a teacher, a speaker and a visible advocate for all things MIT.

Debbie led the creation of the “MIT 150 Exhibition,” working with community members to select 150 objects most important to the Institute. In 2016, she led the creation of another wonderful exhibit when MIT celebrated 100 years in Cambridge.

She contributed to the decades-long planning of the new MIT Museum – and at the same time, she was managing an enormous effort to digitize the Museum’s collections and create an online portal for open access to the amazing assets of MIT. This talk was given at a TEDx event using the TED conference format but independently organized by a local community. Learn more at https://www.ted.com/tedx