> CB: I know Stephen Hawking is more intelligent than I am, but can we
discuss
> this ?
Sure, that was my oblique point: contra Doug, the fact that a (generally) smart, rational person believes x doesn't by itself demonstrate the non-looneyness of x. I wonder where Hawking thinks computers will get the will to dominate from.
> Isn't there some qualitative difference between artificial and "real"
> intelligence still ?
Depends. Maybe a computer could pass the Turing test and still not be intelligent in the manner we're intelligent--but it seems clear that non-organic manner could think and feel in just the manner we think and feel (as I've mentioned before, Kripke constructs a pretty strong argument against mind-body reductionism on the basis of the seeming coherence of this notion).
-- Luke