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Non-Computable You: What You Do That Artificial Intelligence Never Will Paperback – June 17, 2022


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Will machines someday replace attorneys, physicians, computer programmers, and world leaders? What about composers, painters, and novelists? Will tomorrow’s supercomputers duplicate and exceed humans? Are we just wetware, natural computers doomed to obsolescence by tomorrow’s ultra-powerful artificial intelligence? In Non-Computable You: What You Do That Artificial Intelligence Never Will, Robert J. Marks II answers these and other fascinating questions with his trademark blend of whimsy and expertise. Catch a glimpse of the geniuses behind today’s AI—their foibles, follies, and friendships—as told by someone on the inside. Under the author’s steady and winsome guidance, learn about the exciting possibilities for artificial intelligence, but also hear how many of the heady claims for AI are provably overblown. Marks shows why there are some powers AI will never possess, no matter what. These powers belong to another—to non-computable you.

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Editorial Reviews

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"Are human beings obsolete? Is that why fewer people are having children? Bob Marks's delightful Non-Computable You offers a well-reasoned rebuttal. So be human, be creative!"

-Gregory Chaitin, algorithmic information theory pioneer and discoverer of Chaitin's number


"Bob Marks's Non-Computable You throws a big bucket of informed cold water on the runaway brushfire of Big-Tech hype that makes up far too much of modern AI."

-Bart Kosko, University of Southern California, author of Fuzzy Thinking and Cool Earth


"This is a shockingly good book! I've listened to Bob Marks lecture over the years against the inflated claims by artificial intelligence's high priests. But this book ties together his critique of AI in a masterful and awe-inspiring way. I'm blown away.


Bob himself is a founder of the field of computational intelligence, that part of AI with an actual record of achievement and with aspirations that are measured and realistic. He is thus ideally poised to demolish the hype and nonsense that infects AI when it moves from computer science to science fiction. "Humans are about to be superseded by machines," "computers will match human intelligence and then exceed it," "soon we'll be uploading ourselves onto digital media and achieving immortality." Marks shows convincingly that all such claims are more implausible than the myths of ancient times, and that in fact they constitute a religious credo for modern materialists.


But Marks's case is not just negative, showing what computers can't do. He also shows how humans have an incredible range of capacities that machines will never match or exceed, everything from the raw feels of sensation to the creativity of our greatest artists and inventors. Marks concludes that humans are exceptional and that they don't share their exceptionalism with machines. If you're going to read only one book on artificial intelligence, this needs to be it!"

-William A. Dembski, author of The Design Inference


"Fascinating and entertaining. I learned a LOT. So will you."

-Gary Smith, Fletcher Jones Professor of Economics, Pomona College


"It is refreshing to have a writer of Marks's stature write a definitive book on the relationship between artificial intelligence and human consciousness. Marks leaves no stone unturned as he makes clear the limitations of algorithmic computation and Strong AI's inability to ground and account for qualia, semantic meaning, intuitive insight/awareness, free will, and a host of other things that constitute human consciousness and intelligence. His placement of (alleged) emergent mental properties as comparable to getting a pony from horse poop (and, yes, the horse is prior to the poop!) is worth the price of admission. This interesting, widely accessible book sets the record straight and must be read by thinking Christians who don't want to be duped by the extravagant claims of certain scientists."

-J. P. Moreland, PhD, Distinguished Professor of Philosophy, Talbot School of Theology, Biola University, and co-editor of The Blackwell Companion to Substance Dualism

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Robert J Marks II
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Robert J. Marks II, PhD, is a Distinguished Professor at Baylor University. He is also the Director of the Walter Bradley Center for Natural & Artificial Intelligence.

Marks is listed at TheBestSchools.com as one of the 50 most influential scientists alive today. Marks is the recipient of numerous professional awards, including a NASA Tech Brief Award and a best paper award from the American Brachytherapy Society for prostate cancer research. He is Fellow of both IEEE and Optica (formerly the Optical Society of America).

Marks was awarded Junior Membership in the Ohio Academy of Science at the age of eighteen. He was awarded the IEEE Outstanding Branch Councilor Award, The IEEE Centennial Medal, the IEEE Neural Networks Society Meritorious Service Award, the IEEE Circuits and Systems Society Golden Jubilee Award and the IEEE CIS Chapter of the IEEE Dallas Section Volunteer of the Year award. He was was named a Distinguished Young Alumnus of Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology and is an inductee into the Texas Tech Electrical Engineering Academy, While at the University of Washington, Marks served for 17 years as the faculty advisor to the University of Washington's chapter of CRU.and is an advisor for Ratio Christi at Baylor University. He describes himself as a John 3:16 Christian.

Marks was featured in the Ben Stein documentary Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed. The film document's the removal of Marks's web site from Baylor servers by the administration.

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Top reviews from the United States

  • Reviewed in the United States on September 6, 2022
    Dr Marks has the expertise to evaluate the hyperbolic claims of AI gurus and materialist science prophets. For the worried: Humans will not be replaced by super robots. He discusses the limits of knowledge with arguments by intellectual giants like Turing, Godel, Shannon, and Einstein, to name a few. He does so in a folksy non threatening way. A must read for serious people exploring human kind and the Universe in which we live.
    3 people found this helpful
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  • Reviewed in the United States on August 1, 2025
    AI is so hyped today, and we need a clear understanding, from an authority on the topic, to make sense of it. That's what this book has given me.
  • Reviewed in the United States on January 16, 2024
    I appreciated learning AI's history, what it can do following algorithms created by humans, and its limitations. This book explains a lot of the hype, all understandably. Thanks for writing it.
    One person found this helpful
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  • Reviewed in the United States on October 21, 2022
    Well written, entertaining and easy to understand. While areas of this are my field, I think it would suit anyone's experience. Essential reading for today's Hollywood Producers and media journalists!

    Spoiler alert. Don't waste too much time worrying about SkyNet.
    4 people found this helpful
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  • Reviewed in the United States on October 21, 2022
    A nice read. His main theme in the book is simple: computers can execute algorithms only, so any non-algorithmic task can't be executed on a computer. He expounds on this idea and give examples, touches other related topics in his way.
    4 people found this helpful
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  • Reviewed in the United States on July 10, 2022
    This is a good text in terms of what AI has achieved and does a good job on hype. However, it fails to show a proof that humans are non-computable. He asserts that because humans do something and AI does not, humans are non-compute limited. This may or may not be true, but the author offers no proof for his thesis. He cannot predict, as none of us can, what AI may achieve in the future.
    8 people found this helpful
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  • Reviewed in the United States on July 11, 2022
    Very informative, well written. I have a much better understanding of the capabilities and limitations of AI after reading this book.
    4 people found this helpful
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  • Reviewed in the United States on April 6, 2025
    The author, Dr. Marks, was the first president of the IEEE Neural Networks Council (now the IEEE Computational Intelligence Society) and clearly knows what he is talking about. I appreciated the author’s combination of technical and philosophical expertise, something that can be hard to find.

    The relationship of compatibility to Rice’s Theorem and Chaitin's constant was fascinating. I never thought this book got overly technical despite the technical nature of the subject matter. It is well written and has a good bit of humor in it. Anyone interested in the relationship between AI and sentience should pick up this book.
    One person found this helpful
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Top reviews from other countries

  • Dieter Buys
    2.0 out of 5 stars Not impressed
    Reviewed in Canada on April 27, 2023
    It's basically an over the hill professor ranting about his personal take on AI, making reference to largely irrelevant personal anecdotes and asserting his Christian bias. It's a poor take on the nature of intelligence, consciousness and creativity that doesn't contain any novel ideas at all. If you want to grapple with the question of AI consciousness this is not the place to go.