The Art of Doing Science and Engineering: Learning to Learn

by Richard Hamming

There is value in the machine view of a computer, that it is just a collection of storage devices and gates processing bits, and nothing more. This view is useful, at times, when debugging (finding errors) in a program; indeed, it is what you must assume when you try to debug. You assume the machine obeys the instructions one at a time, and does nothing more—it has no “free will” or any of the other attributes such as the self-awareness and self-consciousness we often associate with humans. How different are we in practice from the machines? We would all like to think we are different from machines, but are we essentially? It is a touchy point for most people, and the emotional and religious aspects tend to dominate most arguments.