The Coming Merging of Mind and Machine

Editor’s Note: This article was originally printed in the 2008 Scientific American Special Report on Robots . It is being published on the Web as part of ScientificAmerican.com’s In-Depth Report on Robots .

Sometime early in this century the intelligence of machines will exceed that of humans. Within a quarter of a century, machines will exhibit the full range of human intellect, emotions and skills, ranging from musical and other creative aptitudes to physical movement. They will claim to have feelings and, unlike today’s virtual personalities, will be very convincing when they tell us so. By around 2020 a $1,000 computer will at least match the processing power of the human brain. By 2029 the software for intelligence will have been largely mastered, and the average personal computer will be equivalent to 1,000 brains.

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