Brains are not Computers

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We tend to compare objects with what we think are similar objects.  This tendency causes us to compare the brain to a computer, but that is only because we have computers.

In past centuries, before there were computers for comparison, the brain was compared to a mechanical device with gears and rods.

As an aside, we tend to think of UFOs as space-craft because we have primitive space-craft.  We do not (yet) think of UFOs as phenomena of nature, nor do we think of them in terms of quantum entanglement devices, because the comparisons would be too remote.

Someday soon, we may think of the brain as a highly structured energy field.

The comparison of brains to computers is based on the idea that the brain is an input-output device for the human body, but that comparison falls short because the brain does not output information for a third-party user in the selfless way a computer does.

 

Cameras process light for output to film or other registers, but the user is not the camera itself.

 

If it were so, the camera would not need to be focused.  The raw data (photons) would still be the same.  Focus simply allows the human eye to process the information to the brain.

 

If the human brain, then, does not process information for any user but itself, then that is as absurd as the camera processing light only for its own internal use.

In order for the brain to output anything, it must output it to a user, a user OTHER THAN the brain itself.  The output is to consciousness.

With consciousness, the information is no longer raw data.

With consciousness, there is no longer just action and reaction.
With consciousness, there is meaning and purpose, a meaning higher than the self, a purpose greater than self-gratification.

 

The brain is not conscious, it is an instrument of consciousness.

 

The violin is not the musician.
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