We see computation as Galileo might have seen his telescope, as a medium for exploring entities, relationships, and invariance’s never before perceived by the human agent. It took Newton and his “laws of motion” almost another century fully to capture Galileo’s insights. We visualize computation from exactly this viewpoint, where even as part of our own and our colleagues’ small research footprint we have explored complex human phenomena including:
• Human subjects’ neural state and connectivity, using human testing, fMRI scanning, coupled with dynamic Bayesian networks and MCMC sampling, none of which would be possible without computation.
• Patterns of expressed genes as components of the human genome. These gene expression patterns are assumed to be at the core of protein creation that enables and supports much of the human animal’s metabolic system, including cortical activity and communication.
• Real time diagnostics and prognostics on human and mechanical systems. These complex tasks often require various forms of hidden Markov models along with other stochastic tools and languages.
• Understanding human language and voiced speech also requires computational tools, including various stochastic tools and models. Better language tools will require conditioning such systems with realistic models of human understanding and intention