Post by Tamrin on Apr 1, 2013 8:27:04 GMT 10
10 Important Differences Between Brains and Computers, by Chris Chatham on March 27, 2007
Please click on the link above for much greater detail (and a link to an even greater detailed lecture):
Please click on the link above for much greater detail (and a link to an even greater detailed lecture):
Difference # 1: Brains are analogue; computers are digital
Difference # 2: The brain uses content-addressable memory
Difference # 3: The brain is a massively parallel machine; computers are modular and serial
Difference # 4: Processing speed is not fixed in the brain; there is no system clock
Difference # 5: Short-term memory is not like RAM
Difference # 6: No hardware/software distinction can be made with respect to the brain or mind
Difference # 7: Synapses are far more complex than electrical logic gates
Difference #8: Unlike computers, processing and memory are performed by the same components in the brain
Difference # 9: The brain is a self-organizing system
Difference # 10: Brains have bodies
... This superficial similarity to digital "1's and 0's" belies a wide variety of continuous and non-linear processes that directly influence neuronal processing...
Difference # 2: The brain uses content-addressable memory
In computers, information in memory is accessed by polling its precise memory address. This is known as byte-addressable memory. In contrast, the brain uses content-addressable memory...
Difference # 3: The brain is a massively parallel machine; computers are modular and serial
An unfortunate legacy of the brain-computer metaphor is the tendency for cognitive psychologists to seek out modularity in the brain...
Difference # 4: Processing speed is not fixed in the brain; there is no system clock
... Although there are individual differences in something psychometricians call "processing speed," this does not reflect a monolithic or unitary construct, and certainly nothing as concrete as the speed of a microprocessor...
Difference # 5: Short-term memory is not like RAM
Although the apparent similarities between RAM and short-term or "working" memory emboldened many early cognitive psychologists, a closer examination reveals strikingly important differences...
Difference # 6: No hardware/software distinction can be made with respect to the brain or mind
For years it was tempting to imagine that the brain was the hardware on which a "mind program" or "mind software" is executing. This gave rise to a variety of abstract program-like models of cognition...
Difference # 7: Synapses are far more complex than electrical logic gates
Another pernicious feature of the brain-computer metaphor is that it seems to suggest that brains might also operate on the basis of electrical signals (action potentials) traveling along individual logical gates...
Difference #8: Unlike computers, processing and memory are performed by the same components in the brain
Computers process information from memory using CPUs, and then write the results of that processing back to memory. No such distinction exists in the brain...
Difference # 9: The brain is a self-organizing system
... experience profoundly and directly shapes the nature of neural information processing in a way that simply does not happen in traditional microprocessors...
Difference # 10: Brains have bodies
This is not as trivial as it might seem: it turns out that the brain takes surprising advantage of the fact that it has a body at its disposal...
