[criddell]

That feels more to me like hardware and software in the sense of a Jacquard loom. I suppose it fits though.

I was thinking more about what's going on in the brain. We have all the regions mapped to specific functions with higher and lower level parts. The low level parts seem to be like hard-wired stimulus-response mechanisms. Are the higher level systems the same at a meta level or is there a type of program running on the hardware of the brain?

[sooheon]

The stimulus response mechanisms are far from hard wired. The brain is plastic at all levels.

[criddell]

A baby doesn't need to be taught how to breath or cry. That seems pretty hard wired.

Anyway, that wasn't really what I was asking about. Is there any separation between the biological hardware of the brain and the instructions of software?