Numerical computing, intelligent problem-solving experience

Analytical chemistry of the recent years is strongly influenced by automation. Data acquisition from analytical instruments - and sometimes also controlling of instruments - by a computer are principally solved since many years. Availability of microcomputers made these tasks also feasible from the economic point of view. Besides these basic applications of computers in chemical measurements scientists developed computer programs for solving more sophisticated problems for which some kind of "intelligence" is usually supposed to be necessary. Harmless numerical experiments on this topic led to passionate discussions about the theme "which jobs cannot be done by a computer but only by human brain ". If this question is useful at all it should not be answered a priori. Application of computers in chemistry is a matter of utility sometimes it is a social problem, but it is never a question of piety for the human brain. 

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