Turing wrote: “Presumably the child brain is something like a notebook as one buys it from the stationer’s. Rather little mechanism, and lots of blank sheets.” He was wrong about that: the child’s brain is rich in mechanisms and prestored templates. Nonetheless, Turing was on to something. We probably will not succeed in creating humanlike intelligence until we can create childlike intelligence, and a key component of this intelligence is the mastery of causation. How can machines acquire causal knowledge? This is still a major challenge that will undoubtedly involve an intricate combination of inputs from active experimentation, passive observation, and (not least) the programmer—much the same inputs that a child receives, with evolution, parents, and peers substituted for the programmer.