We're getting one step further but they're still missing out. Articifial intelligence or consciousness have no reason to be precluded by a lack of embodiment. Computers can have sensors and that's all that's needed. Some life forms have sensors very different from ours and that most probably doesn't prevent them from being intelligent or even maybe conscious.

What a lack of human embodiement prevents in AI is strong communication with humans. Why ? Because as Lakoff hinted on, they'll lack grasp on the linguistic twists and metaphors that make our language relate to our everyday experiences. The problem will be similar to the problem we would have trying to communicate with a bird or an insect. We don't ground our communication in the same things at all.

There are humans living right now that have a different set of 'sensors' from the majority. I'm talking about the blind. The deaf. Those without a sense of smell. Those who cannot feel pain.

Yet we manage to communicate with them.

The embodiment problem is well discussed in AGI literature, despite there being no consensus. This does not raise problems for "Strong AI" (AGI), this raises problems for people who do not understand that there are no scope limitations for AGI.

I do find it frustrating that topics in AGI are discussed as though no one has thought about them. This year for example there were about 90 attendees at the AGI conference in Quebec, however there were numerous AGI topics discussed at both AAAI and the CogSci conference. So not only is the small group growing but more is being discussed in the more mainstream groups.

We're getting closer... "Berkeley Lab researchers hope to accelerate this needle-in-a-haystack hunt with an innovative search engine that simulates the way scientists think. " http://www2.lbl.gov/Science-Articles/Archive/sabl/2005/March...