[bennyg]

I'm more interested in teaching computers lateral thinking, and thus the beginning of creativity - what I believe to be the real hallmark of human thought.

Can a computer be "processing" water pipes, analyzing the construction of pipes for the best flow, then jump to half-pipes and building a new half-pipe so skateboarders can flow better and produce better tricks, get more air, etc. Albeit a kind of lame example, but that jump is crucial, and something we do flawlessly. There's no hard guideline to what triggers our brains to jump. It could be audible, visual, or tangentially related to the task at hand. It could be body language of someone talking to us, that reminds us of somebody else, that reminds us of... Logical thought isn't that beautiful to me. It's predictable. Lateral thinking is though, and that's where all of the good inventions/discoveries begin anyways.

[deadairspace]

Analogy-making is an important part of perception.