yes, it's a recurring thread, "do we really need to mimic the birds in order to build airplanes", etc. I think someone serious about AI should treat it not as

yes, it's a recurring thread, "do we really need to mimic the birds in order to build airplanes", etc. I think someone serious about AI should treat it not as engineering problem but as a science, like physics, which starts with model of nature, and experiment to prove or disprove the theory. Nature provides the constraints by which theory is developed, which radically limits the "search space" of theories. Otherwise it's a bit like throwing things on the wall and see what sticks, which is the primary method of current AI research.