What is the big difference between the computer and the human mind?

Question

It seems that the computer has become a master brain far greater than mine, because it contains almost all the good and bad information concerning all aspects of human and natural activities. Nobody comes to me to seek for answers and entertainment, but more and more people come to the computer!
But the computer is sold for few thousand dollars, while my brain is priceless, why?
The computer is the product of man, my brain is the product of God. And the great difference is that the computer must receive any information uploaded by man, while my brain can decide to select, to ignore, to add, to accept or to reject any information inside as well as outside the computer. The computer is dead, my brain is living.

I am ready to welcome many interesting opinions of yours concerning this subject.

Answer 1

Because while your brain is actually millions of times more complex than your computer,and can hold vast stores of information(you will use about 10% or less of that space before you die,and everything you've ever said,read done etc is in there) the unfortunate fact is that 99% of the population doesn't have the aptitude to at will draw any small item they have ever put into their brain out. So I guess it's all about accessablity.

Answer 2

Computers are useful in a few very specific circumstances. For example, they can do complex mathematical calculations much faster than a human brain.
On the other hand, computers are very limited. They lack creativity, which is a uniquely animal quality. They cannot think up anything original, only process data which they are given. They can't currently store as much information as a human brain (although they can sometimes store it in a more organised fashion)

I believe that computers can never surpass the human brain, but the two can work together to produce a system which is more powerful than the sum of its parts.

Communication is one way this can be achieved, through using the internet to link human brains across the world. Wikipedia is an example, giving one human the chance to access the knowledge of millions of others.

I think that computers are the next stage of evolution, and will eventually produce a collective human consciousness. I know that sounds a bit like the Borg, but I don't mean it that way. Each individual human would be able to think for themselves, but they would have access to the knowledge of everyone else.

Answer 3

Many of us think that computers are many many times faster, more powerful and more capable when compared to our brains simply because they can perform calculations thousands of time faster, workout logical computations without error and store memory at incredible speeds with flawless accuracy. But is the the computer really superior to the human brain in terms of ability , processing power and adaptability ? We now give you the real comparison. Processing Power and Speed The human brain - We can only estimate the processing power of the average human brain as there is no way to measure it quantitatively as of yet. If the theory of taking nerve volume to be proportional to processing power is true we then, may have a correct estimate of the human brain's processing power. It is fortunate that we understand the neural assemblies is the retina of the vertebrate eye quite well (structurally and functionally) because it helps to give us a idea of the human brain's capability. The retina is a nerve tissue in the back of the eyeball which detects lights and sends images to the brain. A human retina has a size of about a centimeter square is half a millimeter thick and is made up of 100 million neurons. Scientists say that the retina sends to the brain, particular patches of images indicating light intensity differences which are transported via the optic nerve, a million-fiber cable which reaches deep into the brain. Overall, the retina seems to process about ten one-million-point images per second. Because the 1,500 cubic centimeter human brain is about 100,000 times as large as the retina, by simple calculation, we can estimate the processing power of a average brain to be about 100 million MIPS (Million computer Instructions Per Second ). In case you're wondering how much speed that is, let us give you an idea. 1999's fastest PC processor chip on the market was a 700 MHz pentium that did 4200 MIPS. By simple calculation, we can see that we would need at least 24,000 of these processors in a system to match up to the total speed of the brain !! (Which means the brain is like a 168,0000 MHz Pentium computer). But even so, other factors like memory and the complexity of the system needed to handle so many processors will not be a simple task. Because of these factors, the figures we so childishly calculated will most probably be a very serious underestimate. The computer - The most powerful experimental super computers in 1998, composed of thousands or tens of thousands of the fastest microprocessors and costing tens of millions of dollars, can do a few million MIPS. These systems were used mainly to stimulate physical events for high-value scientific calculations. Here, we have a chart of processor speeds for the past few years. Year Clock Speed (MHz) Instruction Rate (MIPS) 1992 200 200 (400) 1993.5 300 300 (600) 1995 400 800 (1600) 1996.5 500 1000 (2000) 1998 600 2400 (3600) 1999.5 700 2800 (4200) 2000 1000 ? From the chart above, we can observe some break through s in microprocessor speeds. The current techniques used by research labs should be able to continue such improvements for about a decade. By then maybe prototype multiprocessor chips finally reaching MIPS matching that of the brain will be cheap enough to develop. Improvements of computer speeds however have some limitations. The more memory it has, the slower it is because it takes longer to run through its memory once. Computers with less memory hence have more MIPS, but are confined to less space to run big programs. The latest, greatest super computers can do a trillion calculations per second and can have a trillion bytes of memory. As computer memory and processors improve, the Megabyte/MIPS ratio is a big factor to consider. So far, this ratio has remained constant throughout the history of computers. So who has more processing power ? By estimation, the brain has about 100 million MIPS worth of processing power while recent super-computers only has a few million MIPS worth in processor speed. That said, the brain is still the winner in the race. Because of the cost, enthusiasm and efforts still required, computer technology has still some length to go before it will match the human brain's processing power.

Answer 4

First, I would like to address Betta. There are computers that are self learning, self teaching, self realizing, called the K.R.E.Y. The first one is now in the Smithsonian Institution. The later generations are much more sophisticated than the original.
Now to answer the question, computers lack frontal lobes wich in humans produces emotions, and behavior. Computers lack emotions,the need for God, or spirituality. As a human,I can do without a computer, I cannot do without God.

Answer 5

The real question is what is similar between a computer and the human brain. They are entirely different.

Answer 6

Well said. Feelings and emotions are left out of a computer too.

Answer 7

A computer is not self-aware, and we are. When a computer makes a mistake, it does not know it has made a mistake. We know when we make mistakes - and we know we have to fix them or move on and avoid making the same mistake in the future. Computers rely on us to fix their mistakes.

Answer 8

The computer does not ask, "Why am I here? Where did I come from? Where am I going?"

The computer cannot conceive of its creator.

The computer does not know it exists.

The computer does not know that one day it will cease to exist.

The computer cannot love.

For starters.

Answer 9

A computer is not self aware

Answer 10

computers only know what we tell them. They can't think for themselves. Only our brains can do that.