Venus, Velikovsky & Miscellaneous Speculations

[Ghostisfort]

Psychology Today
Unplugging the Computer Metaphor
Metaphors underlying our approach to understanding the mind/brain
Recent social and affective neuroscience research shows that a computer is an inadequate and misleading metaphor for the brain, and this research is going to be the focus of my blog. Humans, along with other organisms with brains, differ from computers because they are driven by emotions and motivations. http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/the ... r-metaphor

The Brain is not a Computer.
Erich Vieth
Scott Kelso points out that the brain is not a computer that manipulates symbols. “The nervous system may act as if it were performing Boolean functions . . . People can be calculating, but the brain does not calculate.” See Dynamic Patterns (1995). Even those who believe that the brain is (an extremely sophisticated) machine, cognitive scientists such as Patricia Churchland, warn us to handle the computer metaphor with extreme caution. We are pattern matchers and pattern completers. Neurophilosophy: Toward a Unified Science of the Mind/Brain, Patricia Smith Churchland (1986). http://dangerousintersection.org/2006/0 ... -computer/

10 Important Differences Between Brains and Computers

Difference # 1: Brains are analogue; computers are digital

It's easy to think that neurons are essentially binary, given that they fire an action potential if they reach a certain threshold, and otherwise do not fire. This superficial similarity to digital "1's and 0's" belies a wide variety of continuous and non-linear processes that directly influence neuronal processing.

For example, one of the primary mechanisms of information transmission appears to be the rate at which neurons fire - an essentially continuous variable. Similarly, networks of neurons can fire in relative synchrony or in relative disarray; this coherence affects the strength of the signals received by downstream neurons. Finally, inside each and every neuron is a leaky integrator circuit, composed of a variety of ion channels and continuously fluctuating membrane potentials. http://scienceblogs.com/developingintel ... e_a_co.php

As we can see above, "the brain is a computer" metaphor is a bit of science fiction that the science-heads would LIKE to be true, but sadly is not.
The heads have conveniently forgotten what analogue means since the advent of digital, that can be manipulated at will, and so here's a refresher:

Analogue is the difference between a digital clock and a clock with fingers. The fingers trace the rotation of the Earth through twelve or twenty four hours, each division representing the same angle covered by the earths rotation. It is a stark representation of reality. Creepy.

To enable us to describe the brain as a computer, it would be necessary to possess an analogue computer, which does not exist.
An analogue computer, it seems, would have to process symbols, colours and all manner of exotic entities, a million years ahead of anything we have today.

All of the workings of today's computers would have to be abandoned and a completely new concept would have to be devised...from scratch.

 

[Timble2]

....To enable us to describe the brain as a computer, it would be necessary to possess an analogue computer, which does not exist.
An analogue computer, it seems, would have to process symbols, colours and all manner of exotic entities, a million years ahead of anything we have today.

All of the workings of today's computers would have to be abandoned and a completely new concept would have to be devised...from scratch.

Analogue computers do exist, have existed for a considerable time, but have not been as comprehensively developed as digital computers. There's limitations to their use, probably largely engineering issues, but it has been found easier to develop digital machines, which is why they're so ubiquitous. So you wouldn't even have to develop analogue machines from scratch, just take another look at what the approach has to offer. Analogue computers look like the sort of challenge that your hero Tesla might have enjoyed if he hadn't gone chasing death rays etc...

Sorry to quote wiki: but it does give a summary of their development:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Analog_computer

I read about analogue computers in the mid 1960s in a book about Computers and Robots, when both digital and analogue machines were still in development and fairly futuristic devices - it was a children's book and I was about 8 or 9.