Click on the video here to see Watson in action: http://www.slate.com/blogs/moneybox/2013/05/17/watson_oncology_diagnostic_medicine_without_the_doctor.html
You can see this is similar to today's computer, but so much larger, faster and more capable it is verging on something new. I think this and the Googleplex are emergent artificial intelligence. That is the designers' goal. Artificial intelligence is a little hard to define, and the definition has shifted over time, but however you define it I think these machines will partially fit your definition. Here is another remarkable breakthrough. A 19-year-old has made a improved self-driving car for $4,000. He won the Intel award: https://www.societyforscience.org/sslpage.aspx?pid=833&erid=4001456&trid=fd7be24a-decc-4317-ace5-20154d3c1558 And in the category of other interesting stuff, here is Arthur Clarke in 1974 describing the Internet with remarkable accuracy: https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=OIRZebE8O84#! - Jed
