197

14

We Can Think About Ourselves –

The Computer Cannot

Abstract

A computer cannot think about itself, because formal systems have basic barriers here

(exactly proved by Gödel and Turing). Humans (and living beings in general) do not

think formally exactly, but therefore can think more successfully about themselves or

all basic questions. Goals and values therefore must and should always be set by

humans, especially as computers become ever more powerful. Artificial intelligence,

especially deep learning algorithms and neural networks are helping computer capa­

bilities to soar even higher. The more features of a living being are replicated (e.g.,

acting in an artificial environment; replicating language and emotions), the more pow­

erful the capabilities of such a machine become. Bioinformatically, the properties of

artificial intelligence can be used directly, for example, for modern image processing,

but also more generally for the recognition of complex properties (“feature extrac­

tion“), pattern recognition from large amounts of data (“training data set”) and then

also for individual molecules or sequences (predictions, for example, for the secondary

structure in the protein, for the localisation in the cell, etc.).

What could be more fascinating than synthetic biology, man’s ability to create new biol­

ogy (with all the limitations to be considered)? Well, no question, it is man himself. In

particular, his ability to think about himself marks him out as unique. Computers, after all,

can’t do that. Among higher mammals, there are at least some that recognize themselves

as themselves in the mirror. On the other hand, there is no animal species known that can

do detailed introspection based on this or even philosophy like us humans.

© Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature 2023

T. Dandekar, M. Kunz, Bioinformatics,

https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-662-65036-3_14