via Adam Curry's Weblog - The Soul of the Ultimate Machine

To Dr. Smarr, the idea of a thinking machine that might emerge spontaneously from billions of interconnected large and small computers isn't harebrained at all. He said he was simply extrapolating a series of significant trends that, to him, are remarkably obvious. And when it comes to extrapolating trends and forecasting technological revolutions, Dr. Smarr is worth listening to.