Onscreen: Can driverless vehicles make ethical choices? News video: An Uber autonomous vehicle was driving about 40 mph when it struck a pedestrian. Onscreen: Consider the "Trolley Problem." Botnivik: And you have to decide whether you're gonna pull the switch and move it onto other tracks. And let 5 people die?

Marvin Minsky has long been one of the great human intelligences working in the field of artificial intelligence (AI). A professor at MIT, where he has worked since 1957 and cofounded the AI laboratory in 1959, Minsky is also an inventor, philosopher, and author. In recent years, Minsky has focused his formidable talents on trying to impart the human capacity for commonsense reasoning to machines. In this interview, conducted on November 3, 2010 by "Smartest Machine on Earth" producer Michael Bicks, hear Minsky's take on why it's important to recreate human intelligence, what a five-year-old can do that even the smartest machine cannot, and whether someone will ever invent a computer that laughs at Seinfeld. Marvin Minsky says that when it comes to designing a smart machine, "you mustn't look for a magic bullet"--that is, just a single way to solve all problems.

Q: How has having children yourself changed your perspective on your work, and in particular, has it made you think about ways in which your work might benefit ill children in the future? My work has always been strongly inspired by the cognitive and social development of children and the crucial role that social interaction plays in that process. I wouldn't say that having children has changed my perspective as much as broadened it and made my research and its application much more personal. My parents always told me that you can't appreciate what it's like to be a parent until you are one--and then you're one for life. Having children of your own, nurturing them, experiencing the joy of seeing them learn and grow--well, it adds depth and meaning to everything.

Now I want you to meet somebody who is...well, he is what he is. And what he is, is--and you'll see this in the way he plays, the way he works, the way he loves, even the way he does his laundry--the man is an engineer, and such an engineer that if you were to look deep into his cells, down to the DNA where the rest of us have AAs and CCs and TTs and GGs he has, I haven't seen this, but I'm sure it's true, he has E-N-G-I-N-E-E-R. JAMES MCLURKIN: All right, let's, let's get this going. ROBERT KRULWICH: James McLurkin does not waste time. DARA BOURNE (James McLurkin's Girlfriend): James said to me, when we went out to dinner the first time, "I'm a geek."