He is exploring how to teach computers to tell meaningful stories. 6 Keep in mind how far we have come. The first computer, built in 1944, took up more space than an 18-wheeler's tractor trailer, weighed more than 17 Chevrolet Camaros, and could execute up to 5,000 basic arithmetic operations per second. The Pentium microprocessor is built on a piece of silicon about the size of a dime, weighs less than a packet of sugar, and can execute up to 270,000,000 instructions per second. But computers can't tell stories.
Computers can solve problems with clear-cut answers faster than any human being.
Schank has a great deal of understanding about how our mind works. He views intelligence as the ability to tell the right story at the right time which will shed new light on a situation. Perhaps indigenous people know something that we don't know. Jean Houston tells of asking an Aborigine woman how people differ from animals. We are our stories.