I like the distinction you made there. My observation that when it comes to AGI, there are those who are saying "Not possible with the current technology." and "Not possible at all, because humans have [insert some characteristic here about self awareness, true creativity, etc] and machines don't.

I can respect the first argument. I personally don't see any reason to believe AGI is impossible, but I also don't see evidence that it is possible with the current (very impressive) technology. We may never build an AGI in my lifetime, maybe not ever, but that doesn't mean it's not possible.

But the second argument, that humans do something machines aren't capable of always falls flat to me for lack of evidence. If we're going to dismiss the possibility of something, we shouldn't do it without evidence. We don't have a full model of human intelligence, so I think it's premature to assume we know what isn't possible. All the evidence we have is that humans are biological machines, everything follows the laws of physics, and yet, here we are. There isn't evidence that anything else is going on other than physical phenomenon, and there isn't any physical evidence that a biological machine can't be emulated.