[davidrangel]

From a pure layman's perspective: if you believe in evolution, then what separates us from a reptile (as mentioned in the post) is almost certainly something we can figure out and replicate. There is nothing "special" there.

So if you believe computers today already have the "intelligence" of a reptile, or a toddler (i.e., ability to play pong), or something along those lines, it's only a matter of time before a computer has the intelligence of a full-blown adult human (and soon thereafter much more).

Our level of intelligence/awareness seems magical only because we haven't fully understood it yet. That will change.

[onnoonno]

I think we should figure out what we mean by understand. Do you mean modeling 'the human brain' on some level and building abstractions?

Those abstractions are exactly that - abstractions. They are not the thing itself. Do you think we can understand everything through abstractions, even the process of understanding itself?

[dinkumthinkum]

No I don't think "belief" in evolution implies that at all. That's a big jump.

[davidrangel]

Why is that a big jump? I'm not saying it will be easy or quick. It does imply that getting from a reptile-level intelligence to a human-level intelligence was a natural process and something that can be reverse engineered.