Or is the capacity to do good and evil what makes humans human? And can the evil attribute be filtered out as we transfer our abilities to machines? Wouldn't that be wonderful. ~missi~ Author Brad Leithauser thinks we will be sharing more and more of our brainpower with our machines: "Just how 'special' our brains are -- which is to say, to what degree they are not duplicable by machines -- has emerged as the central issue in the field of artificial intelligence. There is as yet no way of knowing whether any inherent boundaries exist to a machine's capacity for replicating human thought -- or how, if such boundaries exist, they might be categorized or defined. Meanwhile, researchers in artificial intelligence tend to feel both vexed and amused at the way the public seems unthinkingly to shift its definition of creativity to exclude machines. In her book 'Machines Who Think,' Pamela McCorduck observes, 'There is superstition about creativity, and for that matter, about thinking in every sense, and it's part of the history of the field of artificial intelligence that every time somebody figured out how to make a computer do something -- play good checkers, solve simple but relatively informal problems -- there was a chorus of critics to say, but that's not thinking. In the next few decades, our society will certainly see machines dramatically extend their range of activities, and creativity will doubtless have to submit to a good deal of redefinition. Whether we will be able to keep the term at all -- at least in its present guise as a process both mysteriously and uniquely human is a question that encompasses deep neurological and philosophical issues." See http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0679429980/newsscancom/ for Brad Leithauser's "Penchants and Places." (We donate all revenue from our book recommendations to adult literacy action programs.) »§«:*´`³¤³´`*:»§«:*´`³¤³´`*:»§«:*´`³¤³´`*:»§«:*´`³¤³´`*:»§« You're Just Jealous Because The Voices Are Talking To Me Richiele Sloan ICQ #63829109 (Missi) »§«:*´`³¤³´`*:»§«:*´`³¤³´`*:»§«:*´`³¤³´`*:»§«:*´`³¤³´`*:»§«