[astrodust]

We're just a simulation of intelligence that's done with clunky, inelegant biological materials. The only thing that separates humans from slugs is scale and complexity of neural interconnections, all the basic parts are present in a slug.

Intelligence itself is an emergent phenomenon, so who's to say what's "simulated" and what's "real"? If it behaves in an intelligent manner, which can be tested and probed exhaustively, then it is intelligent.