From now to 2020, computer scientists expect to see an entire world blossoming over the Internet: electronic commerce and banking, cyber malls, virtual universities and schools, cyber libraries, and so on. We will begin to have a glimpse of Hawthorne’s vision when “intelligent agents” became part of this global network, capable of answering our inquiries in plain, conversational language. But the true fruition of Hawthorne’s vision may not come until the period from 2020 to 2050, when true artificial intelligent (AI) programs will finally be added to the Net, capable of reason, common sense, and speech recognition. Select the most accurate summary of Kaku’s argument.
