Ever wonder whether computers will one day be capable of doing everything that human beings can? If so, pick up the recent book by engineer and computer scientist Dr. Robert J. Marks: “Non-Computable You: What You Do That Artificial Intelligence Never Will.”
Marks explains what makes human beings unique, and therefore why no computer will ever match all human capabilities. To be sure, computers excel humans at many tasks — but only tasks that are “algorithmic,” or that entail step-by-step instructions to complete, such as calculating probabilities, retrieving information, or executing functions.
That is why advanced artificial intelligence (AI) systems have long surpassed humans in games such as Chess and Go. These games have more possible moves than there are atoms in the universe, and calculation optimization is crucial for success.
Nevertheless, many capacities of the human being will forever remain beyond the power of AI, capacities like understanding, sentience, creativity, emotion, and common sense. Why? Because these things are “non-algorithmic,” meaning they are not computable.
Take understanding, for example. A computer can follow a step-by-step set of instructions (an algorithm), but it cannot grasp the meaning of those instructions.
To understand why, consider an algorithm that consists of a series of zeros and ones. The only reason such a series counts as an algorithm in the first place is that some human being programmed the digits to act as one. But by itself, the sequence is meaningless.
For example, “0” is a conventional symbol we have
