The Mechanical Turk, a hoax in the eighteenth century, created the illusion of a machine playing chess. The Turk was a desk-sized box that revealed mechanical gears within and sported a chessboard on top. Seated behind the desk was a mannequin whose arm would reach across the board and move the pieces. A small human chess expert who did not suffer from claustrophobia (chess is a long game) hid inside the desk, viewing the board from underneath and manipulating the mannequin’s arm. Napoleon Bonaparte and Benjamin Franklin had the pleasure of losing to this wonder of innovation—I mean, this
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