... in three to eight years we will have a machine with the general intelligence of an average human being ... The machine will begin to educate itself with fantastic speed. In a few months it will be at genius level and a few months after that its powers will be incalculable...
- Marvin Minsky

Whatever happens, where or when, we're prone to wonder who or what's responsible. This leads us to discover explanations that we might not otherwise imagine, and that helps us predict and control not only what happens in the world, but also what happens in our minds. But what if those same tendencies should lead us to imagine things and causes that do not exist? Then we'll invent false gods and superstitions and see their hand in every chance coincidence. Indeed, perhaps that strange word "I"—as used in "I just had a good idea"—reflects the selfsame tendency. If you're compelled to find some cause that causes everything you do —why, then, that something needs a name. You call it "me." I call it "you."
- Marvin Minsky