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Welcome to the nexus of ethics, psychology, morality, technology, health care, and philosophy

Tuesday, June 7, 2016

The empty brain

by Robert Epstein
Aeon Magazine
Originally published May 18, 2016

Here are two excerpts:

Forgive me for this introduction to computing, but I need to be clear: computers really do operate on symbolic representations of the world. They really store and retrieve. They really process. They really have physical memories. They really are guided in everything they do, without exception, by algorithms.

Humans, on the other hand, do not – never did, never will. Given this reality, why do so many scientists talk about our mental life as if we were computers?

(cut)

Misleading headlines notwithstanding, no one really has the slightest idea how the brain changes after we have learned to sing a song or recite a poem. But neither the song nor the poem has been ‘stored’ in it. The brain has simply changed in an orderly way that now allows us to sing the song or recite the poem under certain conditions. When called on to perform, neither the song nor the poem is in any sense ‘retrieved’ from anywhere in the brain, any more than my finger movements are ‘retrieved’ when I tap my finger on my desk. We simply sing or recite – no retrieval necessary.

The article is here.

Editor's note: This article may help clinician's reflect on the way we discuss memories and change with our patients.  Our understanding of how the brain works is quite limited.  And, the brain is not like a computer.