Equal to a fly's intelligence?

[Mentat]

I don't know that this is the appropriate forum to post this question. I expect that Monique's judgement will be correct, and that she'll move it if she sees fit.

I just heard someone say that computers have the intelligence of a fly (the insect). I thought this an utterly obsurd idea, but want to make sure. Is there any truth to this? If not, why have people published such lies (apparently he read it somewhere).

Any help will be greatly appreciated.

[selfAdjoint]

This used to be said back in the early mainframe era. I think they just counted the number of logic gates in those early behemoths and compared that count to the number of neurons in a fly's brain. They used to be very naive about comparing a neuron to a logic gate.

[Mentat]

Originally posted by selfAdjoint
This used to be said back in the early mainframe era. I think they just counted the number of logic gates in those early behemoths and compared that count to the number of neurons in a fly's brain. They used to be very naive about comparing a neuron to a logic gate.

Thanks, selfAdjoint, that makes sense.