What Sewing Machines Teach Us About AI

Dive into the surprisingly dramatic story of the invention of the sewing machine, if anyone can decide who did it first anyway. This story has it all: revolutions, bonfires, poorly managed paperwork, patent theft... and it all relates to Artificial Intelligence (AI), no, really.

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Audio Drop from the 1971 film, Fiddler on the Roof

Sources and Further Reading:

How to Identify AI:

https://paradigmhq.org/practical-guide-to-identifying-generative-ai-content-on-the-internet/

https://www.pcmag.com/articles/how-to-detect-ai-created-images

On the Trail of the Denisovians - NYT https://www.nytimes.com/2024/03/02/science/denisovan-neanderthal-dna.html

World's oldest needle found in Siberian cave that stitches together human history - The Siberian Times https://web.archive.org/web/20240208174820/https://siberiantimes.com/science/casestudy/news/n0711-worlds-oldest-needle-found-in-siberian-cave-that-stitches-together-human-history/

History of the Sewing Machine: A Story Stitched In Scandal - Contrado https://www.contrado.com/blog/history-of-the-sewing-machine/

Republished piece from Moniteur in Le Courrier français (regarding tailor riot) - https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Republished_piece_from_Moniteur_in_Le_Courrier_fran%C3%A7ais.jpg

HISTORY OF THE SEWING MACHINE: PORTRAIT AND BIOGRAPHY OF THE INVENTOR BARTHÉLEMY THIMONNIER by J. Meyssin, Professeur de Fabrique - https://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/bpt6k63539255/f5.item

Just a tip, if you look at this source on a computer, there is a panel on the left hand side of the screen that says “Text Mode (OCR).” Click on that, and it will show you the text of the book, and you can then translate the whole page to English (or whichever language you like). It’s not perfect, because the text is just pulled out by AI that recognizes the text in the image, but it’s good enough to read the book.

Who Invented the Sewing Machine? - International Sewing Machine Collectors' Society (ISMCS) - https://ismacs.net/sewing_machine_articles/who_invented_the_sewing_machine.html

Chimonnier, Inventor of the Sewing machine - ISMCS - https://ismacs.net/thimonnier/chimonnier-inventor-of-the-sewing-machine.html

The Most Important Sewing Machine Find This Century - ISMCS - https://ismacs.net/thimonnier/the-most-important-sewing-machine-find