Our differences may well just come down to a difference of beliefs. In reference to the first 3 paragraphs of your response, I believe there are a few orders o

Our differences may well just come down to a difference of beliefs. In reference to the first 3 paragraphs of your response, I believe there are a few orders of magnitude (at least) difference between "computers can already infer sentiment" to, for example, "a computer that manages a construction firm that uses Mexican commodities realises that Trump has come to power and THAT wall, that is promised, isn't going to happen. Mexico won't be happy, and there might be a trade war. Perhaps start supporting Anti-Trump causes. Certainly don't waste time bidding to build the thing." In reference to the flesh vs machinery question. I think I don't believe it because I don't think we have a good way of designing a good AI. An AI needs to be like a slave that is motivated to serve some goal other than itself. A human brain would not be a good model for such an AI, as our brains are trained to serve ourselves. (Or our selfish genes?) So we cannot copy human brain design and development processes to make an AI that we can trust. We need to design a new brain, based on perhaps similar, but different processes. Evolution with different selectors? Deterministic design? I don't think we could do it.