Also relevant to this discussion is Douglas Hofstadter's solitary pursuit of 'thinking machines', outlined recently in this Atlantic profile: http://www.theatla

Also relevant to this discussion is Douglas Hofstadter's solitary pursuit of 'thinking machines', outlined recently in this Atlantic profile: http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2013/11/the-man-who-would-teach-machines-to-think/309529/ http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2013/11/the-man-... This analogy is particularly illuminating, "“The quest for ‘artificial flight’ succeeded when the Wright brothers and others stopped imitating birds and started … learning about aerodynamics,” Stuart Russell and Peter Norvig write in their leading textbook, Artificial Intelligence: A Modern Approach. AI started working when it ditched humans as a model, because it ditched them. That’s the thrust of the analogy: Airplanes don’t flap their wings; why should computers think?" While the Norvig-Chomsky debate is about the philosophy of the science of AI, it has practical implications to practitioners who tend to apply statistical techniques as if they are popping a pill. Engineers applying statistical learning, etc. should understand the limitations of the techniques, as outlined by Chomsky in the debate. The outcome of the Chomsky-Norvig (or Hofstadter vs. everyone else in CS) debate is less important than the arguments put forth by both the groups.