mark W. Tilden's BEAM robot research, and its spiritual descendents with insect-level hive-mind cooperation with each other, in my opinion are proof of concept that the lowest level of the spark of self-direction are somewhat emulatable - simple electronic networks mimicing neurons.
this isn't the widely believed path to AI but i've been following the guy for years, even corresponded with him to get a copy of his original thesis. it's some interesting stuff, robots with unpredictable behaviour ultimately.
not intelligence but random and learned action. these robots don't pursue anything but energy or directed objectives, but they are not directly led to action - that is key.
not a totally unbelievable thing, not by a long shot.
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