The human brain is like a computer. This is not a new insight.
We have long-term memory storage and short-term memory storage, and removable memory storage.
Since the development of writing, much of our information is stored in books, but even before this, the oral tradition functioned as a sort of removable storage. Information was stored inside the heads of poets. The tradition of storing information inside the heads of other people didn't end with the development of literature. To paraphrase my former professor Paul Dyck, new technology doesn't replace old technology, it just makes things more complicated.
I, for example, store a good deal of information inside Jan's brain. Things like what time do we have to be there, and how do we get there, and even what episode of Buffy is that from. And Jan, in exchange, stores information in my head. I ... can't think of what exactly, but I'm sure she does.
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6 comments:
As a psych major and something of a pseudo computer geek I can assure you (and I'm sure nothing will make you happier to hear, Paul) that the beauty of the human brain is that it is nothing like a computer.
Computer's store data in a sequential manner wherein most of the data they have access to serves only to tell them how to deal with the rest of the data. Most of that is duplicated several times over. Your brain on the other hand is a network of information that is linked together. You only need a few neurons to contain the idea 'blue' for instance, because everything you've ever seen that is blue is connected to those neurons. And before you think "oh, so the brain is more like a computer network" consider that there are more connections between each idea in your head than there are wires between every single computer on the internet. Artificial intelligence research does a lot of mimicking this kind of processing (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Connectionism), but so far the most these 'neural networks' have achieved is something approaching the intellect of a retarded termite... or maybe an exceptionally bright starfish.
Having said that, I also like to store things in Diedre's head. Things like, 'What time am I supposed to wake up tomorrow?' It's been working out pretty well for me.
Aaron, you're right. Even I know enough about how the brain works (and I don't know much) to know that it really isn't like a computer at all. Thanks for the info.
What I should have said is that it is sometimes helpful to think of our memory in terms of computer memory, even though it is in fact much more complicated.
Interesting!
it just made me happy to see that paul made a sweeping statement of facts that may or may not be accurate, and then aaron wrote a long and involved rebuttal. it brought me back.
thanks, guys.
Anytime
(Though really it was all just a big excuse to be able to use the phrase 'retarded termite')
Ha!
Now I laughed twice at that phrase.
Paul and Aaron: shh! You're going to get me in trouble at work! And then I won't be Almost Normal anymore!
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