Embodiment

Pfeifer and Bongard claim that "intelligence always requires a body." (page 18 of How the Body Shapes the Way We Think, Bradford Books, 2006) While Asa H has used Lego NXT sensors and actuators to help define some concepts (see my blogs of 14 Feb., 16 Feb., 6 March, 12 March, and 1 April 2013) all of these could have been input by humans instead.  While a society of intelligent agents needs to have some contact with the external environment it is not necessary for every individual intelligent agent to have such contact.  A human could serve in place of the AIs input sensors and/or output actuators and as a pre and postprocessor for the AI. (Just as a man can be an expert in astrophysics without ever looking through a telescope himself. Specialization can work.  The proverbial "brain in a vat" can still think, still be intelligent.)