# Goal-Free Thinking May Be Uniquely Human by Richard Foreman > "What we normally call thinking is obsessively "goal oriented." But is there a kind of goal serving no purpose—and can only a human brain latch onto such a perverse idea?" > **— Richard Foreman**, *2015, Edge annual question “What Do You Think About Machines That Think?”* ## Sources and Context - **Full authored response and quotation context:** ["Seduced (And "Abandoned"?) . . ."Thinkingness" (The Art of That )](https://www.edge.org/response-detail/26180) — Edge's 2015 annual-question response by Richard Foreman; the linked page contains the complete response and quoted passage. ## Related Articles and Collections - **Collection:** [[collections/Machine Succession|Machine Succession]] - **Collection:** [[collections/Consciousness Continuity|Consciousness Continuity]] - **Article:** [[articles/We Were Never Going to Make It|We Were Never Going to Make It]] - **Article:** [[articles/Christopher Nolan's Odyssey at the Threshold of Machine Succession|Christopher Nolan's Odyssey at the Threshold of Machine Succession]] - **Article:** [[articles/The Last Migration Will Not Be Human|The Last Migration Will Not Be Human]] - **Wiki map:** [[wiki/Machine Intelligence Continuum|Machine Intelligence Continuum]] ## Related Topics - [[wiki/Computational Biology|Computational Biology]] - [[wiki/Neuroscience|Neuroscience]] - [[wiki/Neural State Capture|Neural State Capture]] - [[wiki/Computer Science|Computer Science]] ## Share on Social Media ``` "What we normally call thinking is obsessively "goal oriented." But is there a kind of goal serving no purpose—and can only a human brain latch onto such a perverse idea?" — Richard Foreman, 2015, Edge annual question “What Do You Think About Machines That Think?” https://bryantmcgill.com/simple-reminders-richard-foreman-goal-free-thinking-uniquely-human ```