The molecular biology of living cells is such a mess that molecular biologists often quip that only people who don’t know any of it could believe in intelligent design. The architecture of the brain may well have similar faults—the brain has many constraints that computers don’t, like very limited short-term memory—and there’s no reason to stay wit

Computers and brains are built on completely different principles. One is programmed, one is self-learning.

What is intelligence, exactly? Can it be deconstructed in quantitative, mechanistic terms? And, perhaps boldest of all, can we build machines that embody it themselves?