What I do understand, and have tried to convey in this book, is that rational thinking is not necessarily our greatest property, and although we prize it, it may be a handicap. We have to recognize that in addition to conscious rational thinking our minds are capable of other, more powerful mental processes that lead us by intuition to grasp a tiny sparkling fragment of reality.

Intuition must be taken into account when comparing the power of artificial intelligence with animal intelligence. Does any current or forthcoming computer have the capacity for intuition? Then there is that awesome thought: what if our brains are quantum computers? And if they are, does this have anything to do with our ability to think using the hidden layer of the mind that operates unconsciously?

From James Lovelock’s A Rough Ride to the Future, New York: The Overlook Press, 2015, pp. 165-166.