[Tyler]

Would Humans Think a Thinking Machine Thought?
     

Alan Turing and most researchers since have been asking the question:
can a machine think? But an equally interesting question is: If a machine
could think, would humans think the machine thinks? Some people seem so
sure machine intelligence is impossible, would they accept it if
they saw it? Others seemingly attribute intelligence to simplistic
mechanical devices or even their PC. A group of researchers from RWTH
Aachen University in
Germany decided to study the question and have released a paper
describing their results, "Can
Machines Think? Interaction and Perspective Taking with Robots
Investigated via fMRI" (PDF format). While people may claim anything
about a machine, their brain engages different neural circuits when
interacting with an entity of human-like intelligence because
 we try to model the mind of the of one we're interacting with.
Researchers observed MRI scans as participants interacted with virtual
agents, not knowing which were human or machine. What they learned is
that to
the extent an agent has certain characteristics (embodiment,
anthropomorphism, and social interaction), our brain will accept it as a
thinking entity with a mind.
   

http://robots.net/article/2601.html