“POCKET WORTHY”
The Empty Brain By Robert Epstein

“Your brain does not process information, retrieve knowledge, or store memories. In short: Your brain is not a computer. “

So how does our brain function ?
Before you answer read the article please for relative information. Too long to post.

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The author has a very narrow definition of computer & ignores that a metaphor means 'similar' not exactly the same.
I read it as "I'm at the end of my grant & need some publicity to 'prove' I deserve more funding".

quote:

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.

So a brain 'changing in an orderly way' so that information can be 'recalled' isn't storing information? He doesn't think we can ever model a brain, but he thinks we should 'get on with understanding ourselves'. Good luck with that. I guess you can't be a psychologist without psycho.

Just because I'm sure nobody has this information stored in their brain, a human brain doesn't work like a digital binary computer - what you would think of as a 'PC' (desktop/laptop/phone), if you stored any information in that empty brain of yours.

A more apt metaphor is the brain = neural network. The non-linear response of neurons is how we "store" so much information, but that information isn't a perfect copy.

Show me the computer that can reach incorrect conclusions from inaccurate information and I will acknowledge its Artificial Intelligence.

The entire article is a bunch of unsubstantiated opinion based on an absurdly narrow definition of the concept of a computer and a bunch of ridiculous semantic arguments, all stated as obvious, fundamental truth.

Information goes into your brain, and you can get it back later and do stuff with it, but you're not "storing" or "retrieving" or "processing" information. Right.

Actually your brain is the finest computer ever devised, inside an armored case and sitting on a spring to keep it stable and upright.

God does good work.

^^^^^ YES ^^^^^^
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I get his point. We are quantum based, and analog. Binary will never be an accurate analogy.

Bit of a silly headline, but I get his frustrations.

One of the hardest models in the long long ago, was protein interactions. Still is, most likely. Huge molecules, with quantum sites meant to take advantage of quantum effects, and complex internal structures.

Just that, gave the binary system of a computer fits.

It may be why bio computers need to be pushed more. I’m not sure a binary based system can ever really tackle the real world.

A cockroach has, I think, 6 neurons. Can’t see and move at the same time. Now, it’s been designed/evolved around using much brain power - brains are expensive - and I’m not sure we have anything better than one at traversing terrain.

Although quantum still is a computer term I agree it’s closer to the way we work. Than binary
Obviously we remember past events and learnings to some extent. Damaged brains can erase memories so of course the memories are stored somewhere in the brain, somehow .

I agree with most here. His "arguments" are mostly based on his definitions, which are narrower than I would generally consider useful. In other words, his argument is mostly definitional and semantic, and therefore uninteresting and not one that will lead to any useful thinking.

Not even worth finishing the article, imo.

For crying out loud. It's the closest approximation that we have at the moment.

Guess what? The things he wrote below as applying to one but not the other applies to both humans and computers.

To wit: both infants and computers do not come into this world with information, data, rules, software, knowledge, lexicons, representations, algorithms, programs, etc. except for the basic hardwired stuff.

We do store words and rules on how to manipulate them. Does the author think we're born with grammar rules in our heads? The author thinks we don't store memories in short-term memory buffers and long-term devices? He's not talked to someone with dementia who can't remember what they had for lunch an hour ago but remembers vividly the house they had when they were 10 years old?

quote:

But here is what we are not born with: information, data, rules, software, knowledge, lexicons, representations, algorithms, programs, models, memories, images, processors, subroutines, encoders, decoders, symbols, or buffers – design elements that allow digital computers to behave somewhat intelligently. Not only are we not born with such things, we also don’t develop them – ever.

We don’t store words or the rules that tell us how to manipulate them. We don’t create representations of visual stimuli, store them in a short-term memory buffer, and then transfer the representation into a long-term memory device. We don’t retrieve information or images or words from memory registers. Computers do all of these things, but organisms do not.

quote:

Originally posted by Fla. Jim:
Although quantum still is a computer term I agree it’s closer to the way we work.

Care to elaborate? I'm trying to come up with how a brain works like a quantum computer, but I can't. Might be that I'm fairly ignorant on both.

What is it lately with people pontificating about things they know nothing about? First Covid and now this.

Yes, he's using a narrow definition of the term "computer" to fuel his intellectual rage. Two toggle switches on the same circuit as a light bulb, and a power supply, is a computer. The relative positions of the switches encode information, and the light is the display = computer.

Maybe it's a different kind of computer, but the vertebrate brain is still a computer. Maybe it's analog vs. digital, so what (and there is some research that supports digital processing). Maybe it's quantum as someone suggested. Again so what, still a computer.

We're not sure exactly how memories are stored, but it has something to do with patterns of neuron potentiation. It even involves what would be PC analogs of RAM and hard storage, i.e. short-term and long-term memory. STM you keep the pattern alive by immediate repetition (like practicing a golf swing). LTM something more analogy occurs, perhaps a physical change to the synapses, but only after a minimum number of potentiation cycles have occurred. But key word, it's still memory. We do store memories, obviously we do.

quote:

Originally posted by snidera:

quote:

Originally posted by Fla. Jim:
Although quantum still is a computer term I agree it’s closer to the way we work.

Care to elaborate? I'm trying to come up with how a brain works like a quantum computer, but I can't. Might be that I'm fairly ignorant on both.

Read this please. Too long to post but gives a fair theory and the possible why.

https://www.newscientist.com/a...ns-ability-to-think/

One interesting part, 1/2 spin atoms nucleus could allow long term memory storage in a warm wet brain.

“What's 869,463,853 times 73?
While the average person would still be reaching for their calculator, 20-year-old Neelakantha Bhanu Prakash already has the answer.

It's 63,470,861,269 and it takes just 26 seconds for Bhanu, known in India as the "world's fastest human calculator," to work it out in his head…”

www.google.com/amp/s/amp.cnn.c...-scil-hnk/index.html

quote:

Originally posted by Pipe Smoker:
“What's 869,463,853 times 73?
While the average person would still be reaching for their calculator, 20-year-old Neelakantha Bhanu Prakash already has the answer.

It's 63,470,861,269 and it takes just 26 seconds for Bhanu, known in India as the "world's fastest human calculator," to work it out in his head…”

www.google.com/amp/s/amp.cnn.c...-scil-hnk/index.html

The hot dog vendor fixes a hot dog and hands it to the Zen master, who pays with a $20 bill.
The vendor puts the bill in the cash box and closes it. "Excuse me, but where’s my change?" asks the Zen master.
The vendor responds, "Change must come from within."