[tim333]

The computing resources are getting cheaper. There was an estimate that to get something roughly equivalent to a human brain you'd need ~100 teraflops and currently you can now get a 12 teraflop GPU from Nvidia for $1200.

Part of the reasoning for the Kurzweil turing test by 2029 type of stuff is that once human level hardware falls in price to hobbyist levels, loads of people will hack away and someone will figure it out.