Wiki-hopping: The Turk
The Turk: Automation Chess Player.
The Turk or Automaton Chess Player was a chess-playing machine of the late 18th century, exhibited from 1770 for over 84 years, by various owners, as an automaton but later explained in January 1857 as an elaborate hoax. Constructed and unveiled in 1770 by Wolfgang von Kempelen (1734–1804) to impress the Empress Maria Theresa, the mechanism appeared to be able to play a strong game of chess against a human opponent, as well as perform the knight’s tour, a puzzle that requires the player to move a knight to occupy every square of a chessboard once and only once.
I found out this article while reading about Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles which features a learning computer: The Turk, which is named after the above machine/hoax.
By the way, Nice to see Summer Glau kicking some ass again :)
solaris 