What is Cognitive Computing and What Can it Do for Us?

We hear the term all of the time. It's being bandied about and is an old idea with a new name, but what actually is cognitive computing and why is it such a big deal today? Cognitive computing is --according to the experts--the "simulation of human thought processes in a computerized model." Cognitive computing is used to create systems that are fully automated and that are fully capable of real problem solving without the human intervention that we have come to expect from such systems. In fact, the dawn of computing couldn't' foresee anything such as we're seeing today.