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" Roger Penrose wrote a book called "The Emperor's New Mind." He looked at this argument for artificial intelligence, and he said it's just bunk. I think he's right."
Really? Penrose wrote that book way back in 1989. I'd like to think that neuroscience is a little further along than it was 20 years ago. Computer science is too, for that matter. I remember reading not too long ago that some are starting to think that consciousness is actually an illusion - our brains have already made a decision before we are "aware" we've made one. It's a scary thought to think that maybe we don't have as much free will as we think we do - certainly the advertisers spending billions of dollars are counting on this fact to sell us their products who's utility to us are dubious at best.
As always, the scientific explanations for things - which I like to call "reality", are always much more exciting to me than the mumbo jumbo ones.