If Brains are Computers, Who Designs the Software? - with Daniel Dennett
Hard work, but worthwhile for those amongst you who like to think about such things.
In response to: Cognitive science sees the brain as a sort of computer, but how does education redesign these cerebral computers? Cognitive scientist, philosopher, and expert on consciousness Daniel Dennett explains.
Comments (18)
When TV was new some said what we see is projected onto the visual cortex like onto a TV screen. Then, who is watching?
When clockwork was new some said the brain works with tiny cogwheels. Then, who is the machinist?
When someone says the brain is a machine, whether steam-engine or super-computer,
he is also saying there is a ghost in it.
When TV was new some said what we see is projected onto the visual cortex like onto a TV screen. Then, who is watching?
When clockwork was new some said the brain works with tiny cogwheels. Then, who is the machinist?
When someone says the brain is a machine, whether steam-engine or super-computer,
he is also saying there is a ghost in it.
1. The brain is a material structure, product of evolution, and the mind is its emergent property. Just like discrete spectrum is of a H atom. Nobody could imagine this spectrum by perfect knowledge of protons and electrons, that, of course, build up the H atom. This approach was convincingly explained by Gilbert Ryle, in The Concept of Mind.
2. The brain is a machine, or a musical instrument, and the mind / soul / holy spirit / or simply a ghost, operates on it. This was put forth, e.g. by Hofstadter & Dennett in The Mind’s I: Fantasies and Reflections on Self & Soul, and by Popper & Eccles in The Self and Its Brain. In the latter Popper himself, who was no less a rockstar than Dennett is today, declared: “I believe in the ghost in the machine.”
Btw, downward causation is consistent with both.
The brain as a computer...
The brain as a computer...
Did god, make the world 6000 odd years ago, or at the beginning of time?, (about 13.8 billion years ago?) The two things are mutually contradictory.
Back in the days, where one only had to convince ignorant goat herders, of such things, these erstwhile fellows (largely illiterate), would have been very impressed, (and convinced) by such an impressive time scale of 6000 odd years! Today, this idea seems patently ridiculous. So the date got "moved back" 13 (or so), odd billion years, BUT this is a direct contradiction of the Bible!
The whole thing has the unfortunate feeling of 'grasping at straws' about it, and makes the thinking person immediately suspicious! Let's do away with this nonsense, and discover things through logic, the scientific method, and other (likewise) forms of progress...which have thus far, been the only forms of progress that have dragged us out of the caves, (which as pitiful troglodytes), we used to inhabit...
Religion as a byproduct of Evolution, (and other scientific explanations)
Btw, is on topic, as it concerns the Evolution of the human brain...