Le
Canard Digérateur
(1739)
The Canard Digérateur ("Digesting
Duck") was created by Jacques de Vaucanson
in 1739, who claimed the drawing above as an accurate
depiction of its inner workings. In Vaucanson's
demonstration, the mechanism consumed grain at one
end,"digested" them internally by a mechano-chemical
process, and excreted feces at the other. In fact, the
grain was stored internally and the fecal material was a
pre-prepared mash of bread crumbs, dyed green. The
"Digesting Duck" is a meme for the idea of Reductionism,
in which with sufficient knowledge a living system can be
reduced to an essentially mechanical one.