Computers and thinking

Lee Gomes has an excellent, short summary in The Wall Street Journal of the tussle between the MIT school of artificial intelligence and the Berkeley philosophers (subscription only, sadly). According to Gomes, Berkeley has won. “Even in Silicon Valley, one occasionally hears nightmare scenarios about genius-level computers running amok and giving the pink slip to their human creators. Lost in the discussion is the fact that the starting point of the argument — that intelligent, conscious machines are just around the corner — is looking more and more like silly ranting.”