Studying Human Intelligence by Creating Artificial Intelligence When considered as a physical symbol system, the human brain can be fruitfully studied by computer simulation of its processes

Although we speak of the natural and the artificial as polar contrasts, yet in almost all the objects and phenomena we encounter in our everyday lives, the natural and the artificial are inextricably blended (2). No one would object to my calling a baseball an artificial object, yet it must obey the laws of mechanics just as strictly as does a boulder dislodgecl by an avalanche. A cornfield is an artifact created by man; even the corn plant itself is a genetic artifact. Yet the laws of biology apply to cornfields and corn plants. It is hard to think of anything more artifactual than a television commercial?but its transmission and reception are gov erned by Maxwell's equations. There is no contradiction in extending the methods and findings of the natural