Typical math problems are computable: their answers can be determined by counting, calculating, or, as the word suggests, computing. The symbolism and meaning in Emily Dickinson or Herman Melville? Nope — not computable.
The word compute was born in the 1600s, but what was computable back then, with pencils and paper, is a far cry from what is computable in the information age. What began in the 1940s with the work of the British mathematician Alan Turing has rapidly evolved into ever smaller, faster, more powerful machines ("computers," of course) that make ever greater amounts of data computable, which in turn has made any number of inventions and processes possible.