Yes on brain repair & self-repair, no on AI?

from the vision:-two-yes,-one-no dept.
from the New Scientists' Next Generation Symposium site: "Welcome to the future…it's getting seriously strange out there as we head for the millennium. Below 24 young scientists working at the cutting edge bring you their thoughts and predictions. Check them out before you take your journey into the future… " Included:
Brain Repair in the 21st Century: "How much of the brain can be replaced before you require a new passport?"
Soft-condensed matter: "we could design desirable structures without actually having to build them, and if you break them, they will 'repair' themselves…we'd really like to have systems that completely self-assemble and produce hard bits and soft bits and valves and pistons and all the necessary things we need to make nanomachines, all from exploiting the properties of soft matter."
AI is possible, but AI won't happen: "there is no obvious way of getting from here to there–to human-level intelligence from the rather useless robots and brittle software programs that we have nowadays." [Yes, okay, it's not obvious.]