I think that very much depends on how you define "computer". the brain is doing computations, so I think it's safe to think of it as a computer. it's just a completely alien computer to what we build ourselves
By computation, do you mean problem solving? The most simplistic model I have of the brain (not a psychologist, just from thing I read) is that the brain is an advanced pattern matcher. I don't think we even do linear "computation", just because of the quantity of data we are ingesting, storing and retrieving.
how would you do pattern matching without computations?
I think anything that could be described through logic gates or turning machines would be a "computation". And any object or organ that processes information would be a "computer "
Because things are just are. An analogy I can come with is a graph like irrigation canals. You fill them with water and they just are. Or something like an adder circuits. You "input" the numbers and the result is just there. There isn't an algorithmic process with loops, conditions and recursions. We don't store information, we store its patterns and link it to other patterns. We don't process information as much as we filter it through patterns we've stored. Like logic gates do not process electricity, our brain do not process information.
I'm not seeing the distinction. All computation "just is". computation happens through the physical world. adder circuits are performing a computation. an x86 CPU is nothing but a bunch of dumb circuits. water canals can do computations just like electrical circuits. as can biological neurons.
This is a computer with all the abstractions stripped away [1]. It's hard to see the loops and conditionals from the falling marbles, but it is processing information. And electrical computers are essentially the same thing, just scaled up to an unimaginable degree
there are a lot of mysteries around the brain, but at a high level, I think you'd have a hard time finding a neuroscientist who doesn't believe the brain processes information. what's the alternative?
Like I said, it depends very much on how you define computer. To me "processing information" == "computation". And a physical system that performs "computations" is a computer. Therefore, a brain is just one type of biological computer.
In a computer science class, the first thing they should teach is that the word "computer" in the course name is abstract, and not just about the metal slab on your desk. There are fundamental laws that apply to all information processing systems, whether electrical, mechanical, or biological. So it makes sense to put them in the same category at times.
But obviously words mean different things in different contexts, and "computer" might mean something entirely different to a neuroscientist than a computer scientist. But I don't think a neuroscientist would disagree that a brain is a computer using the loose definition I described above
Of course, you can set up a definition space so that a puppy is a steam engine.
But if we stick to commonly adopted definitions, like https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Computer or "turing machine" ones - then NO, sorry, brain and computer has barely anything in common. Besides being made of atoms and being complex )