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Determinists explain everything that occurs in the universe as an outcome of an infallible master narrative: if an apple falls from a tree, or a star explodes in the Andromeda Galaxy, then determinists will insist that those events transpired precisely how and when they did because an insuperable chain of causality preordained each outcome. The magic of this type of deductive thinking--which, once again, is predicated on a dogmatic allegiance to an "infallible" master narrative--is that it can be used to explain anything and everything. However, as Karl Popper articulated so convincingly, deductive theories that purport to explain everything in fact succeed in explaining nothing scientifically.

Elementary My Dear Watson! The Beauty (and Baloney) of Being Right about Everything

Fate is the most potent weapon in a the arsenal of determinists like Stephen Hawking. To contend, as determinists plainly do, that the outcomes of events are pre-determined is essentially the same as saying that the ebbs and flows of history are all dictated by fate. Actors, whether animate or inanimate, have no control over [...]

In the 1990s, IBM's Deep Blue gained the notoriety of defeating Garry Kasparov, the reigning world champion, in a chess match. Remarkable as this feat may have been, Deep Blue could not be described as an "artificially intelligent" computer. In 1950, Alan Turing stated that computers would not achieve AI until they were capable of fooling interactants into believing that the computers were in fact human. IBM's Watson represents the next great leap in the quest for AI. Yet, spectacular as Watson's computing capabilities may be, Watson still flunk the Turing Test 100 times out of 100.

Artificial Intelligence: Is Watson the Real Thing?  

Artificial intelligence represents a threshold in computing that will transform machines into human-like intellectual entities. In a world grown used to rapid technological progress, it hardly stretches the imagination to contemplate next-generation computers that are substantially smaller and more powerful than their predecessors. However, the goal of transforming computers into sentient beings is an entirely different matter.