<SNIP>
> How do you know?  To know they don't exist
> would first require that someone know what
> thinking is.  I don't know of anyone who
> does. :)  (Which brings up an interesting
> logic problem:  Can a brain, or any
> collections of brains, understand what a
> brain does? I don't know, but I think computer science will ultimately
build
> a pretty good model of thinking whether or not it does precisely what a
> brain does.)
>
A very good question.  Bob surely has an answer but just as food for
thought, some historical truisms (or so we were led to believe.)

The earth is flat
The earth is the center of the universe
Heavier than air flight is not possible
Humans cannot survive speeds above (pick a number) 30 60 90 100 200 speed of
sound
The sound barrier cannot be broken
Man will never reach the moon

and now...
computers will never be able to think

Never is a very very long time.

Aerodynamically, a bumblebee should not be able to fly but it does fly.

CH
> >What we have are merely fast
> > non-thinking IDIOTS who can follow programmer instructions very
> > rapidly, or slow running artificial-intelligence programs that
> > APPEARS to be able to "think",
>
> Maybe we can only build idiot savants due
> to speed limitations.
>
> -- kc
>