Did you see IBM's Jeopardy-playing computer, Watson, play against show champions Ken Jennings and Brad Rutter tonight? (You may have been thinking "What black magick is this, that a talking box should play at being human?" yet verily, I tell you, it is no black magick but a "Mechanical Turk" fastened of steel and copper wire.)

Jeopardy! is finally ready for its Kasparov vs. Deep Blue moment: This February, the show will televise a man vs. machine tournament involving Ken Jennings and a quiz robot.