Which people is most like the Na vi?

[Human No More]

Originally Posted by Sempu

I didn't mean that people compared telephone exchanges to neural networks. I meant that back when a telephone exchange was the hottest new technology, people compared the human brain to them.

Incorrectly, then. More likely was that people compared them to the brain - although honestly, there is extremely little common ground in their operation, but far less was known about the nervous system back then.
Trust me, I have studied AI, knowledge systems and genetic algorithms as well as biology.

Originally Posted by Banefull

Out of curiosity then, do you think that humans have free will? Or are we merely slaves to the pattern input we receive our senses?

Free will, clearly. There are chances taken every millisecond, things that work out randomly, from whether someone decides to go out or not to which parts of a chromosome cross over during meiosis, potentially completely changing the biological characteristics of a person. Humans (and all animals) make their own decisions, and basic physical processes are always applied consistently.

A computer is slave to its input. You can trace the series of processes that lead up to the output. Even a program that modifies itself from runtime to runtime is still subject to its initial input in the original program.

Not always. See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Conway%27s_game_of_life. It's a series of patterns that evolve without input other than the initial state, but follow definable mathematical rules, and it is by no means a unique example. The underlying code was obviously written by a human, but the results are generated completely procedurally.

The entire point of advanced machine learning systems is to have only a basic framework, to start from no assumptions and build up to the required system. Most will use a domain of facts which are generally input manually, but this is by no means the only (or best) approach.

I myself have always wondered why we as beings exist seemingly in control of a body and not just some mass of complex organic cells that act out and simulate everything in our lives based upon automatic pattern recognition from senses and preprogrammed genetic responses and tendencies. This "knowledge" or "ability" that indigenous people could very well exist.

Every single action and response can be mapped. There is very little that is not fully understood, and the theory is understood. Every single (reputable, methodologically correct, published and peer reviewed) study investigating any kind of paranormal capabilities of humans has soundly debunked those claims.