[fab1an]

While intriguing, it's important to remember that humankind has always compared the mind to whichever recent technology was available - the catapult, the mill, the steam engine, and eventually, computers. While Deep Neural Networks -- unlike mills -- are of course inspired by what seems to be the actual biology of our brains, and the results are fascinating, it's humbling to keep the above in mind.

[krisoft]

I can see how one might talk in parallels between the mind and a mill, or steam engine, or a computer. I don't see how it would work with a catapult, even in a historical context. Can you elaborate? Or even better, if you could show a reference to that.

[fab1an]

The relevant quote is from Philosopher of Mind John Searle (of "Chinese Room" argument fame):

_Because we do not understand the brain very well we are constantly tempted to use the latest technology as a model for trying to understand it. In my childhood we were always assured that the brain was a telephone switchboard. (‘What else could it be?’) I was amused to see that Sherrington, the great British neuroscientist, thought that the brain worked like a telegraph system. Freud often compared the brain to hydraulic and electro-magnetic systems. Leibniz compared it to a mill, and I am told some of the ancient Greeks thought the brain functions like a catapult. At present, obviously, the metaphor is the digital computer._ (John Searle, Minds, Brains and Science, 44)