If there’s one thing a computer ought to be able to understand - as well as us, if not better - it’s arithmetic itself. If a computer could think at all, it would surely be able to grasp the nature of its own best talent. ‘The question, then, comes down to this: can you describe all of arithmetic, using nothing but arithmetic? Thirty years ago - long before Professor Stoney and his computers came along - Professor Gödel asked himself exactly that question.
