I recently went on a trip and left my computer alone for 8 days. When i came back, i discovered that my father had somehow messed up the software quite badly as he's not good with computers. There was a system command asking whether i would like to restore the system to an earlier time when everything was running properly. I did and its working fine now.
Here's the thing. In order for the com to know the earlier time, it had to be tracking activities all the time such that at a time when unusual pattern of usage occurs, it can detect and thus bring the system back to the original state. That is, if not creepily intelligent, at least very smart programming. Plus other instances of intelligence that are very situation specific, even if the situation is rare. Can't think of any other examples right now, but at least you understand where i'm going.
So here's the question. To all computer programmers and ppl who know. How did you guys make the computers so intelligent, almost sentient, that it can be as situationally specific in solving problems as the one i mentioned above? Do you guys think of every possible problem that could happen under the sun and then think of ways to solve it?
Thank you very much for any answers, if anyone doesn't understand my question just ask here and i'll reply in the details.