How (and Why) to Think that the Brain is Literally a Computer

• URL: http://arxiv.org/abs/2208.12032v1
• Date: Wed, 24 Aug 2022 15:38:10 GMT
• Title: How (and Why) to Think that the Brain is Literally a Computer
• Authors: Corey J. Maley
• Abstract summary: The relationship between brains and computers is often taken to be merely metaphorical. The relationship between brains and computers is often taken to be merely metaphorical.
• Score: 0.0
• License: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
• Abstract: The relationship between brains and computers is often taken to be merely metaphorical. However, genuine computational systems can be implemented in virtually any media; thus, one can take seriously the view that brains literally compute. But without empirical criteria for what makes a physical system genuinely a computational one, computation remains a matter of perspective, especially for natural systems (e.g., brains) that were not explicitly designed and engineered to be computers. Considerations from real examples of physical computers-both analog and digital, contemporary and historical-make clear what those empirical criteria must be. Finally, applying those criteria to the brain shows how we can view the brain as a computer (probably an analog one at that), which, in turn, illuminates how that claim is both informative and falsifiable.

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