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The computer has evolved from the great hulking beast that once took up three rooms to the now portable versions that can be taken anywhere. The abilities that the computers have are also highly advanced in comparison. The early machines did little more than help humans to solve complicated math problems and store large amounts of information. Today computers play movies and control complicated machinery and systems to help avoid human mistakes.
Advancing what a computer can accomplish is the main area of study in the industry. People all over the world know the day is coming when computers can think and react like a human does, which they fear will render the human race obsolete. Most researchers are not a subscriber to this theory because computers will always lack most of the basic human emotions and not reactionary as the homo-sapien species does. This does little to console the masses as Hollywood has forever taken us to the dark place where computers rule the Earth and decide that the humans are not worth saving. Most of the experts in the field seriously doubt that it will ever come to that place in time but there are some concerns that they voice about the concept none the less.
Artificial intelligence is the term that is commonly used for computers that can think. This is actually a true term when you think about it. A computer is a completely artificial machine, made up of parts developed for a specific purpose. If the machine is given any kind of intelligence it must come from man himself, because the computer lacks the capability to perform such a task on its own. With this in mind, the researchers for artificial intelligence are working on a way to make the computers of the future more human like in nature. This is done by way of intelligence chips that are built into the computer system which teaches the machine how to learn on its own through outside sources and not having to be prompted to do so by man.
There have been some developments in the field over the years but there are still many questions that need to be answered. For one thing, computers lack the function to act outside of the logic stage. Computers will act upon their programming from the most logical point of view and not take any other factors into consideration. This is why such things occur that make computers seem like they are not human at all.
An experiment by a large company to build a computer that would defeat grand master chess champions took place some years ago. The company believed that they had created the perfect chess playing machine and put it to the test. In the end the grand master would win simply because he was able to think outside of the box rather than based on the statistics that the computer was playing with. This showed the world that we are still light years away from actual thinking machines that will replace the human race. The computer needs to come full circle from its current state and earn the marks that it can think with emotion and not just logic.
