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ARTY

I have doubts about the                  I am not a "vitalist", however.
feasibility of artificial                All living things are indeed
intelligence.                            physical objects, and the soul
                                         is just a particularly complex
                                         pattern.

I do not beleive that
human capability
always expands to the
limits of the
physically possible.
   
Humanity at least *may* have       
fundamental limitations that
prevent it from transforming     
itself into something that          
can make anything that can  
be made.                    
                                
Perhaps we're too stupid to make
something as smart as we are.

If so, biological mechanisms
are not existance proofs of
technological possibilites.
   

There are some possible end runs    
around this block (if it exists):   

                                
      Perhaps instead of
      writing an intelligent                    
      algorithm, it could be                (This doesn't impress me.      
      simpler to write a program             I'd say that intelligence     
      that learns to be smarter.             *is* the capability to learn.)    
                                                                           
      Perhaps an intelligent 
      algorithm could be     
      generated by trial and                (Sounds like it'd take
      error in some                          a while, no?)
      simulated analog of    
      natural evolution.     
                            
      Perhaps natural intelligence
      can be boosted by artificial
      means, without first        
      understanding how                          *Really* "Smart" drugs?  
      intelligence works.         
                                                 Translation of humanity
                                                 into faster running
                                                 hardware?
                                                           MORAVEC
Side issue:
What about the _ethics_ of all
this?  If you can get anywhere
close to artificial intelligence,
then by definition you're going
to be experimenting on the artifical
equivalent of human beings.  What do
you do with your failed experiments?
Don't they have rights?

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