Why do we think computers can achieve intelligence? Where did this idea ever first come from? it sounds almost childish if one traces the history and wild misconception it must have emerged from. The idea maybe dates to Turing? maybe even Leibnitz? What was the idea based on? On seeing that some machines can "behave" i.e. do things a human does? And they started thinking if ultimately that machine might be able to do everything a human does? That a human is nothing but a " complicated machine" in the sense that we can formulate complex but finite rules for its behavior? maybe even simple rules which when applied on appropriate substrates would lead to "emergence" of such behaviors? That is a BIG assumption to make really. Intelligence and cognition here are treated as lists of rules which can be applied to any substrate. An electronic computer is just one substrate. i should also be able to do this on a sufficiently giant mechanical computer.

Even physics seem to have this rule-obssessed assumption. Can we really simulate the universe AS IT IS? Sure we can some parts of it. But is there a theory of everything really? After such a theory we would need to know nothing. physics would be pretty much done with. This theory would explain all observations in the past, present and future of anything we make in the universe.

Even in our search for the smallest particles can such a "bottoming out" ever take place?

EDIT: grammar