What we are talking about here, isn't
intelligence, but the
cause of intelligence, which is
awareness. We KNOW we can create machines that can solve
problems. But are those machines actually
aware? Do they actually
know what they are
doing? Or are they like
sand falling from one's hands, which may make lovely patterns on the floor, and may move, but are
dead, and
cold, and
devoid of any intelligence.
To put it another way, can a machine observe?
If we can create a machine that can do that, (not just record) then the rest of the AI is a piece of cake in comparison.