I know I'm behind the curve, but I just updated to Mac OS 4 (two versions behind the current edition, which my machine cannot run). I got a new version of iTunes, and with it, the "Genius" function.

What you do is pick a song from your library, hit the button and "Genius" gives you a playlist of compatible songs. I've got some 87,000 and change songs, so you'd figure I could get some interesting playlists.

But there's a catch. Most of those songs don't work with "Genius." I didn't mention the set-up process, which involved "Genius" taking an inventory of my library and sending it in to the iTunes store. Then, whenever I send in a song title, the folks at Apple match it up with the libraries of everyone else with that song and send me a playlist from my own library.

I thought I'd see what happened if I picked an obscure song, like "Log O' Poop" by the band Soul Pit. The simple answer is "nothing." I discovered that "Genius" doesn't work with things that no one else has--which is the majority of my collection.

So I went the other way and picked a song almost everyone (of a certain age) would have: "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Heart's Club Band." No problems there. "Genius" came back immediately. What did I get? A lot of Eagles songs.

I don't listen to the Eagles much. The CDs I have (both greatest hits and Hotel California) were among the first CDs I bought back in the 80s. I haven't thrown them away, and I did add them to my iTunes library. But still. The Beatles and the Eagles?

Unlike Pandora, an online program that help you discover music you've never heard (based on a few bands you offer up), "Genius" is interested in making a playlist of stuff you'll like. And "Genius" assumes that the more times certain songs match up in collections, the better suited those songs might be. What is the best-selling album of all time? The first Eagles greatest hits album. What's right up there? Sgt. Pepper's. So it stands to reason that a lot of people who own Beatles CDs might well own Eagles CDs. And so that's what you get.

As a further experiment, I tried a Slint (widely acclaimed among the "alternative" set; utterly unknown outside of it) song. There were a couple of differences. First, it took "Genius" about ten seconds to return a playlist. Second, the Eagles didn't show up on the playlist. Interestingly, the Silver Jews (one of those indie folk rock "supergroups" of the 90s, sort of) did, and continued to appear on just about every playlist based on songs by a fairly wide variety of bands, from Nirvana to the Posies and even Sonic Youth. Who knew the Silver Jews were the Eagles of the alternative set?

Chess players have gotten used to the fact that computers are big enough and fast enough to plot out every possible move and pick the best one--the best computers do not lose to the best human players.

But chess is, largely, an objective game. If you play chess against a person, it is possible to intimidate an inexperienced player by making unorthodox moves. That kind of strategy doesn't work with a computer, which simply breaks down the positions and wipes you out without remorse.

Nonetheless, intelligence is about much more than memory and calculation. It involves the emotional side of the brain as well. And no matter how much information Apple accumulates from "Genius" users, it won't be able to make a playlist nearly as good as a person. Faster, certainly, but not better.

Every person likes a song for a different reason, and those reasons matter when we choose what we want to hear (or see, or read or whatever). Maybe someday someone will make a computer that learns in the same way a human brain does. The computer starts with an infant's knowledge of the world and slowly works its way toward "adulthood." Maybe that kind of computer will be able to approximate human intelligence--but only one person's intelligence. We're all different, and we all see things differently.

And we don't all want to listen to a playlist filled with Beatles and Eagles songs. At least, I hope that's true.

Jon Worley will take Slint over the Eagles any day.