An analogy between the human body (which includes the brain) and programming languages:
CPU cycles = Muscle movements
Assembly language = Electric pulses in a nerve
Third Generation Language = The component steps in a human thought
Fourth GL = Individual human thoughts
I'm not referring here to what a language is capable of; obviously you can use a 3GL to represent complex human concepts if you construct an algorithm to do it (i.e., sort a list, buy a book, etc.). I am talking about individual instructions within a language, and what they correspond to in an analogy with the human body.
Clearly computing languages have a long way to go before they can clearly and easily represent entire concepts in a single statement, but that is what we want; it's why we build libraries. Following the pattern, I think the next levels of language will roughly correspond to:
5GL = The conclusions of a group of thoughts (ideas)
6GL = Entire "minds", able to flexibly process groups of groups of thoughts
7GL = Groups of these minds, able to plug a problem into an entire "mind", and get belief systems and conclusions as a result.
Note that 7GL is able to do more than we humans can do. Intelligent computing is sometimes equated with demeaning human intellect, but once we have languages whose congnitive abilities are greater than our own, we will have been responsible for making something greater than ourselves; surely the greatest possible testament to human ability?
Have I gone off the deep end, or is there anything to this? --JosephStyons