The so-called 'capability approach' originated in the work of Amartya Sen (1999), who defined human capability as the ability of human beings to lead lives they have reason to value, and to enhance the substantive choices they have.
It, in turn, helped to inspire Charles Babbage, the pioneer of a mechanical computer that one observer called a "thinking machine".Following in Vaucanson's footsteps, Wolfgang von Kempelen, a Hungarian nobleman, built two machines that imitated uniquely human capabilities: speech and reason.
As a consequence, computers will begin to improve upon human capabilities such as reason, intuition, and imagination.
"If, instead, the focus is, ultimately, on the expansion of human freedom to live the kind of lives that people have reason to value," he concludes, "then the role of economic growth in expanding these opportunities has to be integrated into that more foundational understanding of the process of development as the expansion of human capability to lead more worthwhile and more free lives".
