Silicon Valley, and the 5 Percent Odds of Success Reality

In 1770, six years before the founding of both the United States of America and the San Francisco mission, the Viennese court of the Archduchess Maria Theresa of the House of Habsburg entertained a visitor called The Turk. In spite of its title, The Turk was not a foreign dignitary, but an automaton, comprising a wooden exterior in the shape of a mustachioed man and a complex interior mechanism of cogs and gears. Built by the Hungarian inventor Wolfgang von Kempelen, The Turk appeared to be precursor to IBM's Deep Blue, a machine that could play chess well enough to defeat human opponents. But the game was rigged: A man was sitting inside the box upon which the chessboard was set, controlling The Turk's movements with levers.