Existence vs Essence

I have been pondering the statement in a book I have been reading about humans vs computers. The brilliant writer helps to visualize the difference between people and computers explaining what is existence/essence. 

Humans, it is believed are existence first and essence later.  We exist, and then we become ‘whatever’.  A computer is essence  first – being a thought of what is useful, and then it exists.  Much like a hammer.  A hammer is something that is needed for a job, and that is its purpose.  We don’t have hammers lying around waiting to be used until someone decides a hammer is a needed tool.  And then it is built. Computers are much more complex. They are not built for one exclusive purpose. Neither are humans. E.G. Chrysikou, a psychologist,  wrote an article on when shoes are hammers.  She was researching problem solving techniques, and used this analogy that we can use a shoe if there is no hammer when one is needed. Her research interests regard how do people use objects to achieve goals and solve problems. In that regard, I guess she was able to do something that a computer could not do. Maybe.  I don’t think a computer could figure out how to replace something known with a creative application of something else. 

The author then goes further and says that humans are supposedly existence first, and the makers of computers when a need arises for a problem or project. Let us say something simple like a calculator.  A calculator is just a mini computer, and all the information is fed into that little computer by a human, in order for the machine to be useful as a tool to calculate functions that are too complex for the average person to perform.  Once this is completed, the calculator is a wonderful tool that not only finds the answers to complex mathematical problems, but also replaces a human ability to even add, subtract, and multiply, because why bother to retain that when a little machine can do it for us. 

Is this really accurate?  Do we exist to become computer program designers and all else?  When one is born – the beginning of ones existence, do they know how to write a complex computer program?  I don’t think so.  A person can do that once they have been fed a great deal of information, just like a person feeds a computer a great deal of information.  So, are we really existence first? Or are we like a computer, being fed the information that we were built to perform?  Does an opera singer arrive through the birth canal singing a great aria?  Does a writer publish a number one seller on their first birthday?  I don’t think so. Maybe we are more like computers than we want to admit. 

Maybe one day there will be a computer that decides our essence.  Maybe it has already been built. Maybe I think too much.