The computational power of the human brain
frontiersin.org
The computational power of the human brain
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Re: The computational power of the human brain
#2[dead]
Re: The computational power of the human brain
#3> The brain has always been compared with a highly sophisticated computer.
This is not strictly true. In ancient times, Plato compared the mind to a chariot pulled by two horses, representing emotion and reason. This reflected the importance of horses for transportation at the time.
In the 1600s, Descartes saw the mind as akin to a mechanical clockwork machine, reflective of the clockwork and automatons built then.
In the late 1800s, Freud described the psyche in terms of hydraulics and steam engines - cutting-edge technology.
Each era attempts to explain the complexities of the human mind through the lens of its most advanced creations. But all these analogies fall short.
Re: The computational power of the human brain
#4> The brain has always been compared with a highly sophisticated computer. This is not strictly true. In ancient times, Plato compared the mind to a chariot pulled by two horses, representing emotion and reason. This reflected the importance of horses for transportation at the time. In the 1600s, Descartes saw the mind as akin to a mechanical clockwork machine, reflective of the clockwork and automatons built then. I…
that makes sense
Re: The computational power of the human brain
#5> The brain has always been compared with a highly sophisticated computer. This is not strictly true. In ancient times, Plato compared the mind to a chariot pulled by two horses, representing emotion and reason. This reflected the importance of horses for transportation at the time. In the 1600s, Descartes saw the mind as akin to a mechanical clockwork machine, reflective of the clockwork and automatons built then. I…
You are very right, but I still see a technological asymptote. What is said that the mind is like a computer is because it is based on logic, mathematics. The analogies may be to the latest current technology but they have one thing in common and it is the abstraction of a perfect machine or system, {We have little of perfect, but our mistakes make us unique and essential}
Re: The computational power of the human brain
#6> The brain has always been compared with a highly sophisticated computer. This is not strictly true. In ancient times, Plato compared the mind to a chariot pulled by two horses, representing emotion and reason. This reflected the importance of horses for transportation at the time. In the 1600s, Descartes saw the mind as akin to a mechanical clockwork machine, reflective of the clockwork and automatons built then. I…
Insightful. And the next era will describe it in terms of quantum interactions.
Re: The computational power of the human brain
#7Fascinating paper, though if you're looking for a quantified "computational power of the human brain" you won't find it. He concludes the brain isn't similar enough to a computer for a comparison to be made.
Re: The computational power of the human brain
#8Fascinating paper, though if you're looking for a quantified "computational power of the human brain" you won't find it. He concludes the brain isn't similar enough to a computer for a comparison to be made.
We will have to wait for an AI that can truly understand us.
A jest I fear may be taken too seriously by the reality we seem to be quickly heading into.
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I would guess that despite all the disparate systems, the basic computations will be similar. Different parts of our generalized connectome, making different connections at different time frames.
I.e. time and multi-signal integration with decay, positive and negative acting signals, squashing or frequency limiting functions, with forward, lateral & feedback connections.
Re: The computational power of the human brain
#9> The brain has always been compared with a highly sophisticated computer. This is not strictly true. In ancient times, Plato compared the mind to a chariot pulled by two horses, representing emotion and reason. This reflected the importance of horses for transportation at the time. In the 1600s, Descartes saw the mind as akin to a mechanical clockwork machine, reflective of the clockwork and automatons built then. I…
You are very right, but I still see a technological asymptote. What is said that the mind is like a computer is because it is based on logic, mathematics. The analogies may be to the latest current technology but they have one thing in common and it is the abstraction of a perfect machine or system, {We have little of perfect, but our mistakes make us unique and essential}
I don’t think that holds though because logic is a high level function of the brain not something fundamental to its design.
Re: The computational power of the human brain
#10> The brain has always been compared with a highly sophisticated computer. This is not strictly true. In ancient times, Plato compared the mind to a chariot pulled by two horses, representing emotion and reason. This reflected the importance of horses for transportation at the time. In the 1600s, Descartes saw the mind as akin to a mechanical clockwork machine, reflective of the clockwork and automatons built then. I…
The difference is, there's no Church-Turing thesis for chariots.