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by aristofun 947 days ago
> You can talk about the classes of algorithms the brain uses to solve difficult problems

> But we do know some things about computation, so we can apply those insights to the brain

You can.

But it is a snake oil, it doesn't give you any actual insight on how brain really works.

To be able to model something with computer doesn't mean it is like a computer.

But at the same time such thinking can really confuse unprepared mind that brain is really modeled by nature as some sort of sophisticated turing machine.

This is misleading.

1 comments

At the same time, pretending that brains don't obey the laws of computation has its own implications, which can confuse unprepared minds into thinking:

1) That brains are something supernatural, instead of physical information processing systems that can be analyzed and understood as such.

2) That digital turing-complete computers are limited and can't possibly do the kinds of complex processing that biological computers can do

Which is also misleading

A brain is not a Turing machine, but a Turing machine can be a brain. Biological brains are just a subset in the space of all possible computers

But I don't think either of us is confused, so this is just a conversation about the semantics, which I'm not very interested in

> A brain is not a Turing machine, but a Turing machine can be a brain.

At this point I regret I wasted my time explaining what's wrong with your reasoning :)

Peace!