A gap between stimulus and response

Not to long ago I was introduced to the concept of The Singularity. The idea behind this is that eventually computers will improve to the point that they can be smarter than human beings. Essentially this is when computers reach the point that they can improve themselves. The idea of the singularity is that at this point it becomes impossible to tell what will happen next. A similar theory called the "empty planet syndrome" involves nano-technology and a similar sort of improvement to a place that we can not comprehend and with a thought we could wipe ourselves out.

Of course there is debate about this and it's possibility. Movies like I Robot or The Matrix and others of their ilk point to a rather scary future. On the other hand though I think that there are several reasons why this won't come to pass.

My favorite reason (yes, I have favorites in my own head) is that computers are like incredibly powerful left brains but they lack right brain ability. Most fundamentally they lack the ability to truly choose their own actions. This choice is why someone who grows up in a family with a long long history of "specific problem X" can overcome their biological programming and choose to become something else. In the end a computer will only respond to the ones and zeros at the heart of it's algorithms. In AI research it is interesting to watch how once a new and great AI algorithm is created... it's not longer AI... it's just an algorithm... just code. Humans have a gap between stimulus and response and thus can choose their own actions.

Computers handle logic and rules and conditions with amazing ease. This is why Deep Blue was able to beat chess grand master Kasparov. While in the early days Kasparov was quoted as saying he would rip the computer to shreds he inevitably lost again and stated that computers would continue to win. Just as John Henry was beaten out by a machine queuing up the industrial age so to did Deep Blue usher in the information age. All of that wondrous tech aside... computers still can't recognize a face. (Algorithms are being built that key off of facial features, voice tones and other previously right brain lock activities and they will continue to improve but the basic limits are still there.)