The topic of thought is one area of psychology, and many observers have considered this aspect in connection with robots and computers: some of the old worries about Al (artificial intelligence) were closely linked to the question of whether' computers could think. The first massive electronic computers, capable of rapid (if often unreliable) computation and little or no creative activity, were soon named 'electronic brains'. A reaction to this terminology quickly followed. To put them in their place, computers were called 'high-speed idiots', an effort to protect human vanity. But not everyone realized the implications of the expression: 'high-speed idiot'. It has not been pointed out often enough that even the human idiot is one of the most intelligent life forms on the earth. If the early computers were even that intelligent, it was already a remarkable state of affairs. One consequence from studying the possibility of computer thought was that we were forced to examine with new care the idea of thought in general. It soon became clear that we were not sure what we meant by such terms as thought and thinking. We tend to assume that human beings think, some more than others, though we often call people thoughtless or unthinking. Dreams cause a problem, partly because they usually happen outside our control. They are obviously some types of mental experience, but are they a type of thinking? And the question of nonhuman life forms adds further problems. Many of us would maintain that some of the higher animals—dogs, cats, apes, and so on—are capable of at least basic thought, but what about fish and insects? It is certainly true that the higher mammals show complex brain activity when tested with the appropriate equipment. If thinking is demonstrated by evident electrical activity in the brain, then many animal species are capable of thought. Once we have formulated clear ideas on what thought is in biological creatures, it will be easier to discuss the question of thought in artificial machines. One of the great benefits of AI research is that we are being forced to examine more closely the working of the human mind. It is already clear that machines have superior mental abilities to many life forms. No tree can play chess as well as even the simplest computer nor can frogs repair car bodies as well as robots. It seems that, viewed in terms of intellect, the computer should be set well above plants and most animals. Only the higher' animals can compete with computers with regard to intellect. The first massive electronic computers were______