As Dr. Samuel Johnson said in a different era about ladies preaching, the surprising thing about computer is not that they think less well than a man, but that they think at all. The early (36)_________ computer did not have much going for it except a (37)_________memory and some good math skills. But today the best models can be wired up to learn by experience, follow an argument, ask proper questions and write poetry and music. They can also carry on somewhat (38)_________conversations.
Computers imitate life. As computer gets more complex, the imitation gets better. Finally, the line between the (39)_________and the copy becomes unclear. In another 15 years or so, we will take the computer as a new form of life.
The opinion seems (40)_________ because, for one thing, computers lack the drives and (41)________ of living creatures. But driving a car can be programmed into the computer’’s brain just as nature programmed them into our human brains as a part of the equipment for (42)_________.
Computers match people in some roles, and when fast decisions are needed in a crisis, they often (43)_________them. Having evolved when the pace of life was slower, the human brain has an inherent defect that prevents it from absorbing several streams of information simultaneously and acting on them quickly. (44) _________________________.
We are still controlling computer, (45) _________________________. Computer power has increased ten times every eight years since 1946. In the 1990s, when the sixth generation appears, the reasoning power of an intelligence built out of silicon will begin to match that of the human brain.
That does not mean the evolution of intelligence has ended on the earth. (46) ________________________. Only a carbon chemistry enthusiast would assume that the new species must be man’’s flesh-and-blood descendants. The new kind of intelligent life is more likely to be made of silicon.