Sonam is a 15-year-old who loves math… when someone else does it for her. One evening, she’s staring at her homework:
“A train has 120 seats. 85 are taken. How many seats are left?”
She groans:
“Why do I need to count train seats when I don’t even have a driver’s license yet?”
She looks at her computer and says:
“Alright, smarty-pants machine, you solve it!”
Step 1: Goal Setting
- Sonam’s goal: Find the answer so she can finish her homework and get back to scrolling Youtube.
- The computer’s goal: Help Sonam solve the problem (because that’s literally what it was built for).
Step 2: The Computer Thinks (a.k.a. Computational Part)
Inside the computer’s brain, it breaks the problem into steps:
- Total seats = 120
- Taken seats = 85
- Subtract: 120 – 85
- Result = 35
The computer proudly flashes:
“Ta-daaa.. The train has 35 seats left!”
Step 3: Sonam Reacts
She claps slowly.
“Wow. Genius. You subtracted. I could’ve done that too… but thank you for saving me 10 seconds of brain energy.”
She writes “35” in her homework, then pats the computer screen.
“You may not have feelings, but you just saved me from mental gymnastics.”
The Hidden Lesson
John McCarthy (the AI pioneer) would say:
- Sonam had a goal (finish homework).
- The computer used its “computational part” (math steps) to achieve that goal.
- That problem-solving ability is what we call intelligence.
But the next question says:
“If the train has 120 seats and 121 passengers, how many must stand?”
The computer freezes.
Sonam solves it herself: “1 person standing.”
That’s the deeper point McCarthy was making. Intelligence—human or machine—isn’t just about raw calculation. It’s about problem-solving in real-world contexts.
Moral of the story:
Intelligence is about using problem-solving power (whether it’s Sonam’s brain or the computer’s calculations) to reach a goal in the real world.
Reference: John McCarthy’s popular quote
Intelligence is the brain’s problem-solving “computer” that helps you achieve goals in real life
Titto Thommy 
Leave a comment