Both of those scenerios are so ill defined that at this point it's lunacy to think they are solutions to anything. This leads me to conclude you think our level

Both of those scenerios are so ill defined that at this point it's lunacy to think they are solutions to anything. This leads me to conclude you think our level of understanding is about two or three magnitudes higher than it actually is. We don't understand brains or intelligence. Therefore thinking we could replicate them is silly since we don't even know what to replicate. This is not to say the march of creating ever better learning systems will not eventually reach "sentient parity" with humans, what ever that is, but that we have no idea what that would actually mean or entail. On neuroscience, we are like paleolithic hunters trying to create the best spear to reach the moon. Yes, the same intelligence that allows homo sapiens to craft - more or less - better sticks for millenias will eventually lead to spaceflight. But it's a long way off.