Theory suggests that such simulations will be possible, but it hasn't been
proved conclusively ... so I guess you can still maintain some kind of "vitalism" for a couple decades or so if you really want to ;-)
Possible major misunderstanding : I am not in any shape or form a vitalist. My argument is solely about whether a thinking machine (brain or computer) has to be instructed to think rigidly or freely, with or without prior rules - and whether, with the class of problems that come under AGI, programming is possible at all.
One feature BTW of those problems is that they can all be regarded as "one-off." Such was with a high probability the fly's problem - it's a bit unlikely (no?) that the fly was genetically or otherwise programmed to deal with being tethered to the apparatus of a scientist - not an everyday situation for a fly. Sometimes you just have to wing it, right?
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