That may be the case, but how does that relate to spying level or depth? I don't see a direct connection.

By the way, China has shown aggression to neighbors over territory disputes over small islands and Taiwan.

Reverend...belief that Christians should seek to convert [sentient] Artificial Intelligences to Christianity...

The Romans are working on robotic lions to counter.

Should they imitate how we imagine the mind to work, as a Cartesian wonderland of logic and abstract thought that could be coded into a programming language? Or should they instead imitate a drastically simplified version of the actual, physical brain, with its web of neurons and axon tails, in the hopes that these networks will enable higher levels of calculation? Itâ(TM)s a dispute that has shaped artificial intelligence for decades.

I suspect to get "true" AI, both of these will have to work together. Neural nets (NN's) will provide hunches and guesses, but the AI will have to model these hunches and guesses in an abstract or semi-realistic way to both test the logic of them, and to be able to communicate with humans about its findings or suggestions.

The AI will be able to "draw" or describe a cartoon-like model of suggestions or events the way a human might in a meeting explaining something about travel, events, human relationships, time-lines, etc. This requires some kind of abstract modelling.

This is pretty much how most human minds work: hunches based on past and/or re-occurring patterns teamed up with abstract modeling at an "object" level to both communicate and test hunches, as created by NN-like pattern matching at a mostly sub-conscience level.

I'm 222 years old and as far as I'm concerned Ceres is still a planet.

I'm 4,000 years old, and as far as I'm concerned, Earth is still flat. You newfangled roundies have it all wrong. You are projecting your own image onto earth, you sedentary belly blobs.

How many library-of-congress's is two far's?

Maybe humans memorize patterns of play (responses) that win then. If the computer cannot "look" far ahead in Go, than neither can people, most likely. What exactly is "strategy" that is different from predicting ahead and/or learning successful patterns?

Go atse?

Shouldn't we wait until the probe actually arrives and gets details before speculating?

There are bright spots on Ganymede (Jupiter moon) that are probably from meteors smashing into its icy surface.

Even our moon has Tycho crater which is surrounded with bright dust due to the recency of the impact. (Radiation tends to darken soil and rocks over time.) Volcano claims are premature.

Well, I outsourced my Donkey Kong playing before bots took it over, so there!

Remember, the alternatives suck also. The recent revelations are that most if not all countries are dirty liars when it comes to spying.

The Onion is not fake, they are just ahead of reality. They predicted:

- RIAA sues radio stations for playing free music

- Gillette creates 5-blade razor

- Neil Armstrong's widow cleans out closet of "space crap" (finds museum gems)

- Joe The Plumber ("dude" pundit)

- Charlie Sheen going violent

- Newly elected Bush announcing era of peace and prosperity is over (911, Iraq, mortgage crash)

- Ann Coulter saying radiation good for you. (Oh wait, Onion missed that one.)

It's good to know that USA does not have a monopoly on anti-science whackjob politicians.

Maybe we can swap politicians to keep 'em fresh: We'll trade you 2 witches and a faith healer for 2 astrologers and a Stonehenge cultist.

You need nova insurance if your Pinto gets it in the rear.

Guys always wanted robots that can fetch a beer from the fridge. The "beer test" is more popular than the Turing Test.

Removing that feature is like removing flying from a flying car.

I have supernova insurance