Quote:
Originally Posted by tompe
What do you think a neuron does? Why can you not simulate the behaviour of a neuron using a traditional computer?
And if you have randomness in a computer program what it outputs is not decided by the input.
I agree with acidzebra that you seem to ascribe magick or something supernatural to the human brain. A lot of people cannot accept that the human brains works on the same level as a computer and therefore they need something to make humans superior.
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And a lot of people cannot accept that a human brain is not like a computer. These starting assumptions flavor our ideas but if you place them aside you will find a lot of things that are similar and a lot of things that are different.
For example I have already mentioned that an ALU is not present in the human brain and this is basic to how a computer works with numbers and performs logic. A brain works differently in this respect. Memory is also different as I pointed out even though we have used some software to attempt to emulate some features.
There are similarities of course. For example the left brain/right brain is fairly similar to modern computers that now have graphics processors (right brain) and the logic computer (left brain). We also have cache memories for rapid access similar to the short term memory in the brain. And like cache the short term memory has limits which is the main reason we sleep as long as we do. The body can physically get by a 3 or 4 hours sleep but the mind needs more. What is happening while we sleep is the left brain is busy indexing and categorizing the data that came in for the day and being stored in the short term memory. This work takes all night. During this time the right brain is pretty much on its own and facilitates and supports dreaming. The right brain has only a short term memory and without the left brains work we forget our dreams very rapidly.
If we overload the short term memory we become sleep deprived and may actually lose some of the data or not categorize it completely. Partially indexed data can be corrected later but may result in our inability to remember things unless it is triggered through a particular path. This behavior is significantly different from how a computer works whose behavior is more deterministic.
Dale