In the 18^th and 19^th century The Mechanical Turk a famous android toured Europe and America where it was presented as an automated chess-playing miracle. It replicated a traditional Ottoman sorcerer with robes, turban, and a pipe, and appeared to have an almost magical mechanism that enabled it to play a solid game of chess against any opponent. Obviously, such a thing attracted huge crowds and the hype was only enhanced when it out-smarted historical figures such as Napoleon Bonaparte and Benjamin Franklin. The machine did not have any chess-playing abilities, though. Instead, it was a brilliant trick containing multiple...