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The definition and design of machines over the centuries are as varied as they are fascinating. In the 16th century, Descartes claimed that the animal was nothing other than a perfected machine; today, the 9th edition of the dictionary of the French Academy defines a machine as a "complex mechanical device producing or transforming energy to produce work, to perform a task, etc.". The mathematician Étienne Ghys traces the evolution of machines and their concepts along two axes: first with machines imitating animals, such as Jacques de Vaucanson's automaton duck in the 18th century, then with those seeking to approach human thought, such as Pascal and Turing's calculating machines. "The fabulous machines of science" by Étienne GHYS, Permanent Secretary of the Academy of Sciences