Mechanical/electronic computers are very simple - a given instruction results in a given action, every time. The computer program in our architectures consists of one determinate instruction followed by another followed by another.
Brains work differently. In the first place, they are not linear. There are lots and lots of neurons firing all the time, not one central processor. Decisions even at the lowest level (like deciding whether our ears sensed a noise) are arrived at by a process best described as voting - a few thousand synapses vote yes or no, and if there's a big enough majority, then our ears sensed a noise. And all decision making at every level is a matter of neural voting.
This architecture is really excellent at intuitions, at pattern matching, at seeing vague resemblances. And conversely, it's terrible at either rapid or accurate calculation. And to function at all, brain architecture requires a quite considerable base of experience. Software emulation probably can't be useful without also copying the physical architecture, but the architecture alone is useless without the experience base.
Brains work differently. In the first place, they are not linear. There are lots and lots of neurons firing all the time, not one central processor. Decisions even at the lowest level (like deciding whether our ears sensed a noise) are arrived at by a process best described as voting - a few thousand synapses vote yes or no, and if there's a big enough majority, then our ears sensed a noise. And all decision making at every level is a matter of neural voting.
This architecture is really excellent at intuitions, at pattern matching, at seeing vague resemblances. And conversely, it's terrible at either rapid or accurate calculation. And to function at all, brain architecture requires a quite considerable base of experience. Software emulation probably can't be useful without also copying the physical architecture, but the architecture alone is useless without the experience base.
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