"But there’s the nagging feeling, even amongst those of us who are diehard materialists, that there’s something more in there, an ineffable ghost in the machine that is somehow independent of the biological underpinnings. Would a sufficiently complex electronic brain have this perception of self? Could an artificial intelligence eventually be capable of insight, of generating something more than the purely mechanical, rule-driven output we usually associate with computers? Of – in other words – creativity?

Or will that always be in the realm of science fiction?"