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SehnsuchtSenior Contributor
https://aeon.co/essays/your-brain-does-not-process-information-and-it-is-not-a-computer
Whaaaaaaaaaat is this logical reasoning that I have not yet come across before? My human mind just imploded and had to readjust everything it thought it knew about itself.
Such an interesting read.
We still know so little about our brains.
In response to: Your brain does not process information, and is not a computer.
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SaharaSenior Contributor
Hi @Sehnsucht and @Former-Member,
in all the reading I've done over the years about the human brain and from all the documentaries I've watched about neuroscience, I never did get the impression that our brains were much like computers.
I only know that research on the brain is still in it's infancy and many theories we once held are now in serious question.
I just thought that calling the brain 'the computer' of the body was an easy way to explain it's function to children! Seriously, that's as far as I thought the comparison went. 
Even though my own brain is seriously dysfunctional, I still marvel at it's abilities. I think the ability we have to feel emotion, compassion and to be creative and feel awe is what makes us human. Creativity, in particular, is something a computer will never have any use for. (Of course I realize that computers can be programmed to generate what we might label random "creative" images, but the computer can't make any decisions about what looks good, when deciding among these images. They are a meaningless novelty.)
This is off the topic, but I always laugh when people say "computers might one day take over the world". Because a computer has no will- it doesn't desire power. A computer is inert; lifeless. It has no motivation to take over the world. It doesn't even have the concept of what the world is. It can't even conceive of it's own existence, anymore than what a vacuum cleaner can! 
In response to: Your brain does not process information, and is not a computer.
KurraSenior Contributor
In response to: Re: Your brain does not process information, and is not a computer.
AppleblossomSenior Contributor
I liked your ramble @Kurra it made me smile as I did have similar feelings.
Great article @Sehnsucht. I remember when I first started using IP metaphors.
Metaphors and analogies are only useful so far .. and cant be pushed to extremes as there will always be differences between different things... So its important to keep arguments in context too.
Digital on and off ... is so different to the curly circuituous paths of nueronal connections. It kinda makes me feel normal now when I read how far some individual nueron stems actually grow within the brain matter.
So maybe we need to be patient with language expressions and the odd ramble ...
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Help us push aside the stigma and discrimination surrounding complex mental health and change the way people talk about, and care for, mental illness.
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