When I trust a gut feeling, am I just receiving input and taking that input and processing it through several conditional statements programmed in the network of billions of neurons? Or is there something more?

This is an interesting question. It leads to a second question, about AI, which is: "if a computer can receive a question like a human, and give an answer like a human, is it any different from a human?" or in other words "is a perfect simulation different from the real thing"?

This prompted the Chinese Room argument. As far as I know the jury isn't out yet.

Fascinating stuff really, thanks for your blog post. AI and all the problems and questions around it keep amazing me.