The explanatory role of mental states

Two questions have obsessed, thrilled, and appalled people down the ages. One is whether machines will one day think, the other is whether we are ultimately machines. Is it possible, in principle, to create machines with minds, feelings, desires of their own? Is it possible that we are «mere» machines, so that only fond illusions underlie cherished concepts like free will, the soul, and the special place of mankind in creation? The development of artificial intelligence has brought these two questions together as never before. The very same concepts, techniques, and experiments are being used both in attempts to build new intelligent machines and in detailed efforts to find out what sort of machine the human mind is