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Is the Brain a Computer?
Debate Information
For several years the idea that our brains are like computers is a view
that has been shared by some very smart people. Some have even gone
insofar as to say the brain is in fact, a computational system. https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/computational-mind/. This has also lead scientists to question the notion of things such as that we could already be living in a computer simulation, uploading consciousness to a computer device, creating an AI that could one day have consciousness in the way we do. The computational theory of mind has also been the inspiration for various science fiction movies such as The Matrix, Transcendence, Inception, and Brainstorm to name a few.
On the other hand, there are those that reject the computer-brain metaphor entirely. In 2016 Psychologist Dr. Robert Epstein wrote an essay on Aeon Magazine entitled "The Empty Brain." https://aeon.co/essays/your-brain-does-not-process-information-and-it-is-not-a-computer. As you can imagine this article was met with a lot of critical comments as to the commentator's this was a very bold argument, not to mention a poorly constructed essay.
While I agree that Epstein's essay here isn't a very good one and that it also contains several flaws I still feel inclined to agree with the main idea the brain is indeed not a computer, but not really for any of the reasons listed in Epstein's thesis. There are those that reject the computational model in favor of something I find far more convincing which is Embodied Cognition https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/embodied-cognition/ which some also refer to as the Ecological approach. https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/1745691619856350.
From the disquisitions from either side, I have read thus far although I admit that isn't very much it appears that the computational theory of the mind is indeed reminiscent of metaphysical dualism. The brain is talked about as if it is a mind that is something immaterial from the rest of our biology but somehow ends up being connected to the rest of the body and controls it. Thinking of the brain in this way (focusing purely on cognition) is to ignore other crucial aspects that play a vital role in our psychological makeup such as the environment/behavioral, biological, and sociocultural facets.
In conclusion, I currently agree that we are more than just our cognition. That we are not a byproduct of a single central processing unit. But much rather, we are the result of a complex mixture of things intertwined with one another, all working together that encompasses all of the above facets mentioned in the previous paragraph.
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