It's named for the idea of "God's algorithm", which is a perfect optimal solution to a puzzle like the Rubik's cube from any position. https://en.wikipedia.org

It's named for the idea of "God's algorithm", which is a perfect optimal solution to a puzzle like the Rubik's cube from any position. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/God%27s_algorithm https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/God%27s_algorithm The idea of this is that an omniscient being would know the best possible move in any configuration, and therefore might solve the puzzle in a strikingly more efficient way than an ordinary solver. I don't know who originated the term but, if I remember correctly, it already appeared in Douglas Hofstadter's discussion of the Rubik's cube in the 1980s, so it was already current then. It was a big topic of Rubik's cube research until it was definitely solved (by the people whose work is linked above).