This is one of the more intelligent posts I've seen on the topic so far. Thanks. Question: this does mean he can say something like "there exists at least one

This is one of the more intelligent posts I've seen on the topic so far. Thanks. Question: this does mean he can say something like "there exists at least one machine that can do it in 50MB" which gives us a signpost for the size of the problem, no? Why does it follow that any other machine would have to take the same approach to hit the same order of magnitude? As for the last, it may be obvious to you, but I don't think it's obvious to everyone. Part of Kurzweil's mission is getting that message out to more people. The controversial part is that once we have those efficient neural networks, we're that much closer to making devices that approximate, at least, what we experience as "thinking." I don't know that anyone here can say for sure whether he's right or wrong -- we'll have to wait 30 years and see.