[bipson]

The problem is your "smart enough agent" and how to obtain one.

There is something in the middle between your pairs of eyes and your decision making that makes you understand what is actually going on around you: perception/cognition.

If this was so simple as you put it (and in particular just by throwing algorithms and processing power at it), several problems would be trivial by now and we all already would have our personal digital assistants... I mean the real deal.

Well knowing I sound like "dismissive grampa" right now, and yes, we have come far and it is impressive, but I sometimes feel like us nerds/hackers/software guys tend to considerably underestimate most problems, and as consequence the intelligence and efforts of those that came before us.