What type of computer is the brain?

Question

Bit of a philosophical question but i don't think the philosophy section got too many mathematicians in it.
Anyone care to share their thoughts or ponderings on this subject?
Ta :-)

k, some background ... many years ago there was an article in American Scientist on the development of a quantum computer. As i read it i thought they were talking of what sounded like a brain to me. it is not so much the workings as more the logic used as someone mentioned logic.
Now really standing target here but to me it seems like the computer operates on this thing called fuzzy logic. But does fuzzy logic belong to the realm of quantum theory?

That should have been: it seems like the BRAIN operates on this thing called fuzzy logic

Answer 1

The brain is a highly parallel electrochemical computing and storage device. Because of this, it can be (and is) quite "slow" compared with a linear device and not well suited for exact sequential calculations of any significant complexity, but it is extremely well-suited for large-scale pattern storage and recognition. The massive parallelism also makes for a very fault-tolerant device, which is required for an organic construction where individual storage nodes can (and do) become inoperable over time, and the storage within individual nodes is not guaranteed to be permanent due to its electrochemical nature.

Many computer scientists and engineers have been attempting to simulate the massive parallel computational ability of an organic brain for some time now. Some topics for further research: neuroscience, neural networks, parallel distributed computing, cognitive science, organic microcircuitry, and artificial intelligence.

Answer 2

Comparison of the brain and a computer
Much interest has been focused on comparing the brain with computers. A variety of obvious analogies exist: for example, individual neurons can be compared to transistors on a microchip, and the specialised parts of the brain can be compared with graphics cards and other system components. However, such comparisons are fraught with difficulties. Perhaps the most fundamental difference between brains and computers are that today's computers operate by performing often sequential instructions from an input program, while no clear analogy of a program appears in human brains. The closest equivalent would be the idea of a logical process, but the nature and existence of such entities are subjects of philosophical debate. Given Turing's model of computation, the Turing machine (which shows that any computation that can be performed by a parallel computer can be done by a sequential computer), this may be a functional, not fundamental, distinction. However, Maass and Markram have recently argued that "in contrast to Turing machines, generic computations by neural circuits are not digital, and are not carried out on static inputs, but rather on functions of time" (the Turing machine computes recursive functions). Ultimately, computers were not designed to be models of the brain, though subjects like neural networks attempt to abstract the behavior of the brain in a way that can be simulated computationally.

In addition to the technical differences, other key differences exist. The brain is massively parallel and interwoven, whereas programming of this kind is extremely difficult for computer software writers (most parallel systems run semi-independently, for example each working on a small separate 'chunk' of a problem). The human brain is also mediated by chemicals and analog processes, many of which are only understood at a basic level and others of which may not yet have been discovered, so that a full description is not yet available in science. Finally, and perhaps most significantly, the human brain appears hard-wired with certain abilities, such as the ability to learn language, to interact with experienced and not chosen emotions, and usually develops within a culture.

Nevertheless, there have been numerous attempts to quantify differences in capability between the human brain and computers. According to Hans Moravec, by extrapolating from known capabilities of the retina to process image inputs, a brain has a processing capacity of 100 trillion instructions per second, and is likely to be surpassed by computers by 2030. [3]

Answer 3

The brain is not a computer at all. The computer is an apparatus that mechanistically tries to imitate the workings of human logical thought, on the premise that George Boole's book _The Laws of Thought_ describes the entirety of human logical thinking. Notice I say 'logical' thinking, because a HUGE AMOUNT of human thinking is NOT logical. Computers themselves are 'computational', meaning they only perform numerical operations executed through electric pulses. Our brains actually work by chemical reaction, not electric pulses, and our brains do much more than just mathematical computations (in fact, it is very hard for us to learn to do that in the first place, it's not natural nor instinctive).

Additional: The human brain does NOT 'operate' with 'fuzzy logic', rather, fuzzy logic is a theoretical paradigm used to explain certain phenomenological apsects that are hard to reconcile following a linear model of logic. The human brain preexists all theories that explain it; in fact, gives birth to a myriad of explanations about itself, and thus all explanations of the brain in one way or another describe an aspect of thought. But this is to say almost nothing about the way the human brain actually functions. One might just as well ask, "is a baby its mother?" It is an interesting philosophical question, but ultimately there is no right or wrong answer. Just 75 years ago it was assumed the structure of the binary computer was exactly the same as the structure of the human brain, but now, here we are, still looking for the perfect theoretical model to explain human thinking. Good luck!

Answer 4

First off..... LMAO at "dumberthange's" answer!!! That's awesome! The abacus is probably one of the most exquisite and advanced computers ever devised by man! Simplistic.

The "MIND" works on frequencies..... Most or all such frequencies can be found in different types of crystals.... At some point (probably not far off) some of the so called "geniuses" in the world of computers are going to begin to understand such things!!!

Modern man claims to be so damned advanced and they're so arrogant...... Secrets of the crystals were known since before the dark ages! Some of them can be used as san discs, matching and directly tapping into the frequencies of ones mind and used for storage of thought itself. Others can generate light without heat, the mind being the "switch" which triggers it. etc etc etc etc.....

And yes... the Philosophy section DOES have some mathematicians in it... That section is a lot more fun though than numbers... Numbers (like people) are simply so damn limited.

Answer 5

Some of the answers pointed out that our brains are slower when it comes to mathematical/computational operations. This caused me to wonder about humans that do indeed have an uncanny ability to do fast operations (sometimes evident in the autism cases termed 'idiot savants', some of whom can come up with extremely large prime numbers in a matter of seconds yet have trouble with day to day living tasks). Perhaps there has been research comparing different brains to try and isolate how logical functioning is developed. I'm curious as to whether there may be some sort of balancing effect happening with the 'idiot savants'; that is the lack of certain functioning in some areas allowed for higher functioning in others. An understanding of this could provide insight into computer development.

On another tangent, consider the sci-fi possibilty of nano-technology: using computers as brain aids. Insert a chip for extra memory.

Answer 6

The brain is a biochemical, neural network based computer. I think we are still a long way to understand our own brain. It is a kind of recursion, using our brain to study our brain!

What's amazing about our brain, is the way information is stored, processed and retrieved. It must have many short-cut routines inorder for it to process especially visual information so fast. Think about recognising a face. Or even better, recognising someone from a distance, just by the way he/she walks. Try teaching that to a computer. The ability to handle JOKES, try teaching that to a computer. The ability to shift context seamlessly. Need I say more, the computer is an ancient abacus when compared to the sophistication of the human brain. Furthermore, the human brain runs on a variety of delicious food.

Answer 7

I think a lot can be explained by chaos theory. The components of the brain act according to quite simple, predictable, non-random (deterministic) physical and chemical rules, yet the brain as a whole is not predictable, in the same way that a man-made computer is.

Non-random yet non-predictable = chaos theory.
Just like the weather. It seems to me that this explains how a determinstic system can give rise to free will.

Answer 8

The brain is the BIGGEST most efficent computer in the Universe. It occasionally crashes but comes back after some rest and works just as well as before. It can get rid of its own viruses and you don't need to wait for it to recall details. It is instant

Answer 9

Faster than a cray, more processing power than the most insane AMD processor, more memory than any hard drive in existance, can multi-task better than a 20GB DDRAM server, and so on. The human brain is the ultimate computer.

Answer 10

Pentium 4 processor