Abstract
It is commonly assumed that usage of the word “computer” in the brain sciences reflects a metaphor. However, there is no single definition of the word “computer” in use. In fact, based on the usage of the word “computer” in computer science, a computer is merely some physical machinery that can in theory compute any computable function. According to this definition the brain is literally a computer; there is no metaphor. But, this deviates from how the word “computer” is used in other academic disciplines. According to the definition used outside of computer science, “computers” are human-made devices that engage in sequential processing of inputs to produce outputs. According to this definition, brains are not computers, and arguably, computers serve as a weak metaphor for brains. Thus, we argue that the recurring brain-computer metaphor debate is actually just a semantic disagreement, because brains are either literally computers or clearly not very much like computers at all, depending on one's definitions. We propose that the best path forward is simply to put the debate to rest, and instead, have researchers be clear about which definition they are using in their work. In some circumstances, one can use the definition from computer science and simply ask, what type of computer is the brain? In other circumstances, it is important to use the other definition, and to clarify the ways in which our brains are radically different from the laptops, smartphones, and servers that surround us in modern life.
Highlights
Computation has been a central feature of research in the brain sciences for decades
We show that if one adopts the definition from computer science, the question is not whether computers are a good metaphor for brains, because brains arguably are literally computers based on this definition
We suggest that the question for scientists should instead be: if we adopt the definition from computer science, what kind of a computer are brains? For those using the definition from outside of computer science, they can be assured that their brains work in a very different way than their laptops and their smartphones— an important point to clarify as we seek to better understand how brains work
Summary
Computation has been a central feature of research in the brain sciences (neuroscience, psychology, and cognitive science) for decades. The early dream of cognitive science in the second half of the twentieth century depended on the links between brain sciences and artificial intelligence (AI) (Newell, 1980; Simon, 1980; Pylyshyn, 1984; Hunt, 1989), yet the failure to make good progress in AI in the 1970’s, 80’s, and 90’s, and the inability to connect such systems convincingly to the brain sciences, led some researchers to conclude that the “metaphor of the brain as a computer” was broken at its foundations (Dreyfus and Hubert, 1992; Van Gelder, 1998) To this day, one can still find in equal measure both brain scientists who use theories from computer science (Kwisthout and van Rooij, 2020) and brain scientists who argue against the brain as a computer metaphor (Brette, 2018). We suggest that the question for scientists should instead be: if we adopt the definition from computer science, what kind of a computer are brains? For those using the definition from outside of computer science, they can be assured that their brains work in a very different way than their laptops and their smartphones— an important point to clarify as we seek to better understand how brains work
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