Can a Computer Learn? Can a Computer Think? Artificial Intelligence?

How Can a Computer Solve a Problem?
Computers run programs. Programs are written in a coded language.

The common man's response is "so?" Equally, the common man 'thinks' - with his code-driven brain: "A computer running programs written in a coded language can't change that code".

But what if the program was written with provisions (conditional variables and experiential accommodations) enabling the computer to change code when those input variables and experiences matched a rule set triggering a command for change? In other words: "Computer, when your experiences match or meet these rules, change your code to...; furthermore, computer, rerun your program including code changes until the optimal output is achieved".

Penultimately: "Computer, I am defining optimal output this way. However, if you (computer) determine optimal output can be defined better, do so. Now, computer, here is the program, multiple and diverse input sources, the current language for writing and modifying the program, go!"

If you 'think' a self-correcting or cybernetic computer sounds like something from Arthur C. Clarke or Roman Polanski or Marvel Comics, you are just a common man. We are all common men and women. And common men and women make mistakes and are mortal.

Computers don't make mistakes and computers aren't mortal.

How Will a Computer Solve the Problem?
Descartes was begging the question when he exclaimed "Je pense donc je suis" ("Cognito ergo sum") - "I think, therefore I am." To think, Descartes was required to acquire a significant, critical mass of learning. As with Descartes' essential tenet of Western philosophy, science, and economics (Capitalism), so too are we, you and me. So, too, are and will be computers.

Can a computer learn? Will a computer think? When the dynamic, infinite sea of knowing meets the static, finite shore of human understanding, is change possible? What change is imaginable? What change is beyond humankind's ability to hypothesize?

Are you learning , yet?

When you have learned and are learning, think .
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"Can a Computer Learn? Can a Computer Think?"
Selected Sources and Resources:

"Machine Learning: Systems that Improve Their Performance" Association for the Advancement of Artificial Intelligence (AAAI) (June 2010).
http://www.aaai.org/AITopics/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/AITopics/MachineLearning

"Cognitive Computing: Building a Machine that Can Learn from Experience" Science Daily, Science News (December 2008).
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/12/081221215537.htm

"Learn Like a Human - Why Can't a Computer Be More Like a Brain?" IEEE Spectrum Inside Technology (April 2007).
http://spectrum.ieee.org/computing/hardware/learn-like-a-human

"Can a computer think?" Machine Learning Thoughts (November 2005).
http://ml.typepad.com/machine_learning_thoughts/2005/11/can_a_computer_.html

"Can neural network computers learn from experience, and if so, could they ever become what we would call 'smart'? And could two different neural networks teach each other what they know, thereby making each other a better network?" Scientific American (October 1999).
http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=can-neural-network-comput

"Managing Organizational Change through Chaos Theory - A Cybernetic Perspective" Dissertation. Michael K. Miller (1994).