ABSTRACT
As technology advances, we see an increasing number of machines that can mimic sophisticated human abilities. The past fifty years have seen computers with memory, with vision, with the ability to make complex decisions based on access to large quantities of information, and now, computers that can apparently talk to us and listen to our replies with at least some pretence at understanding what we say. These developments open up interesting practical possibilities for designing more useful and powerful machines, and rich opportunities for examining some basic questions about human action and human society.
