Researchers used the "Cleverbot" for this test case, which is regarded as one of researchers' best attempts to mimic human conversation patterns with computer intelligence. Cleverbot actually "learns" from the conversations it has as it has them, which is fairly impressive, as this episode of WNYC's "Radiolab" podcast discusses at great length.  (Side note: You can have a text conversation with this piece of computer software at Cleverbot.com, and the results are sometimes frighteningly spot-on and sometimes hilarious).  But turn the computer on itself and things go totally awry. The researchers set up two screens, one with a computer-graphics picture of a woman, and one with a man. They talk to each other, but they're both controlled by the same program. Here's a snippet of the dialogue, which is posted in full on YouTube:  Man: "I am not a robot. I am a unicorn."  Woman: "But you said earlier that you were a robot."  Woman: "I thought you did."  Man: "You were mistaken, which is odd, since memory shouldn't be a problem for you."  I guess that last bit is a nod to the fact that these computers come packed with lots of hardware memory.  That little argument about unicorns and memory could leave you with the impression that a robot's inner monologue is pretty bizarre and vapid. But the computers do talk with themselves about some lofty topics, too, including religion. Here's another piece of the conversation:  Woman: "What is god to you?"  Woman: "Not everything could also be something. For example, not everything could be half of something, which is still something and therefore not nothing."  The computers seem almost proud of themselves in that moment.  And, as this final bit of dialogue shows, they do think about the future. Or at least it seems like they do:  Woman: "Don't you want to have a body?"
Have you ever looked at your smartphone or laptop -- or even a robot, if you're lucky enough to come in contact with one -- and wondered, "What the heck are you thinking?"Well, if so, here's your