Thus I argue that we are not like computers at all really, nor are they really like us. I f humans are machines at all, we are very different kinds of machines. Humans are meaning-making machines. Our strength may not be in calculating vast sums quickly and errorlessly, but we are adept at manipulating symbols and the ideas that those symbols represent, symbols such as the squiggly lines you are looking at right now but have learned to interpret meaningfully. You call these lines an alphabet and writing.
W e see meaning in everything.
As the state of the art exists today, computers still have a difficult time understanding literal meaning in ordinary human language, not to mention metaphoric meaning. M eaning is so important to us humans that the worst thing that can happen to us is to lose meaning. T hat is why, therefore, that the first issue any writer must address is meaning. And the first task in establishing meaning in an essay is to create a thesis. T he beginning of all discourse is a subject.