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How could you make that comment and not link to http://www.terrybisson.com/page6/page6.html

I'd say we are proof that they can be. ;)

Saying that humans are pattern matching engines seems equivalent to saying VW Bugs are internal combustion engines to me though.

I meant the "essence" of humanity, as in "what separates us from the animals."

That is what it means to be uniquely human: to match patterns, overzealously.

Most animals are pattern matchers. Overzealous ones at that. Our specialty is abstraction and formal logic.