If the suspicion of many a researcher is correct and a consciousness arises from this machine without direct intervention by a human being, it will resolve the origin of consciousness question. This, is a big deal. Do we then grant such sentient machines the same rights as humans? > > > > I'm sorry. I'm with Penrose. If a Pet scan lights up the amygdala, you still don't know all the connections,or exactly how it functions. Pet scans tell us functions of areas. Not how to connect the billions upon billions of neurons thru trillions of synapses. > Faith. And raw, at that. The work here hasn't been done yet. > > Optimistic? I'm a technologist after all... only one way for me to be...-And a prediction pops up: making a brain: -Funny he isn't quoted discussing consciousness, but I as interpret it, he is thinking about supercomputing, but implying that how we view reality might be discovered.-http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/09/090904071908.htm-Apropos of my comment that recognizing a brain area that lights up for a given stimulus doesn't really tell you how it is working 'inside':-http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/09/090904165447.htm