+ Reply to thread
Results 1 to 11 of 11

Thread: Metaphor for the human brain

  1. #1
    Content Generator AllWalker's avatar
    Registered
    Mar 2009
    Location
    Antipodea
    Posts
    1,479

    Default Metaphor for the human brain

    The human brain has been described as the most complicated structure scientists have so far observed. And so, when describing how it works, often a metaphor is chosen which reflects this level of complexity. It seems that the operations of the human brain are likened to the most complicated thing the human race is capable of producing, or at least something complicated enough yet commonplace enough.

    I read about ten years ago that over a hundred years ago, the brain was described to the layman as being like a intricate system of hydraulics. Later, this description was shelved in favour of a telephone switchboard. Getting closer, I suppose. At the time of that writing, a powerful supercomputer was the metaphor.

    I remember thinking to myself that that was it, the end of the metaphor chain. I mean, short of someone designing a mechanised brain, a supercomputer was as close as we were ever going to get. I remembered thinking that when a few weeks ago, I heard a much better metaphor.

    What is more complicated than a computer? Why, a network of computers, of course. I suggest that the human brain does not work like a computer, but rather like the internet.

    The strongest distinction between a computer and the internet is in memory storage and retrieval. A computer stores data in a specific place, leaving it there for all eternity if need be, and pullin it out when requested. But the internet is different - Google "water" or "music" and it retrieves every vaguely relevant piece of memory in storage. Some will be useful memories, some will be just nonsense cluttering up the place.

    Googling is a lot like how memory works, don't you think? I say "elephant" and you don't go to that specific neuron cluster holding the definition for the word, but rather you summon every cross linked piece of information, kind of sorted by relevance - if you had been talking about swimming, you might imagine elephants swimming.

    This technique of memory retrieval is speculated by some to be a source of creativity, which is why we don't have flawless memory - this automatic creation of association between memories leads to new ideas.

    The internet is both static and dynamic. The overall structure never really changes, and there are specific "lobes", if you will, that will be around for a long time. Places like Google and Wikipedia. Other parts are springing in and out of existance all the time. Data is passed between this points by many, many linkages.

    So I submit that the internet is the closest metaphor for the human brain we have. People who want to call me a genius, form a queue to my left. People who want to tell me I'm wrong, queue to my right. And screw you.
    Something tells me we haven't seen the last of foreshadowing.

  2. #2
    like Gandalf in a way Nrblex's avatar
    Registered
    Jul 2009
    Posts
    844

    Default

    Well screw you, too.

    I think this is probably a relatively apt metaphor for the human brain. There's so much going on, on so many different levels all at once that it is very much like the Internet zipping information along all over the place.

    The main flaw in the Internet metaphor is that most of what the brain does is very organized and purpose driven. Sure, our conscious mind might be spitting things out randomly at times, but for the most part it's all working in concert towards seeing to your needs and desires. The Internet is a bunch of flailing monkeys flinging poo at each other in comparison.

  3. #3
    Content Generator AllWalker's avatar
    Registered
    Mar 2009
    Location
    Antipodea
    Posts
    1,479

    Default

    I'm bumping this, because I'm too proud of it to let it die.

    Quote Originally posted by Nrblex View post
    The main flaw in the Internet metaphor is that most of what the brain does is very organized and purpose driven. Sure, our conscious mind might be spitting things out randomly at times, but for the most part it's all working in concert towards seeing to your needs and desires. The Internet is a bunch of flailing monkeys flinging poo at each other in comparison.
    True enough, though I wonder how much order there is when you look at the Internet as a whole. I would guess that there is less than the human brain, though I would like a bored mathematician with access to supercomputers to tell me how much less.
    Something tells me we haven't seen the last of foreshadowing.

  4. #4
    Oliphaunt The Original An Gadaí's avatar
    Registered
    Mar 2009
    Location
    Nowhere
    Posts
    2,933

    Default

    There's a section in Brian Winston's Media, Technology and Society that I must dig out and post, wherein he discusses the technologic human brain metaphors.

  5. #5
    Yes, I'm a cat. What's it to you? Muffin's avatar
    Registered
    Feb 2009
    Location
    Northwestern Ontario 48°17'42.8"N,89°23'21.2"W
    Posts
    492

    Default

    A brain is like god in a bowl of jello.

  6. #6
    aka ivan the not-quite-as-terrible ivan astikov's avatar
    Registered
    Feb 2009
    Location
    moston, UK.
    Posts
    4,779

    Default

    Fyodor Dostoyevsky said, "It is not the brains that matter most, but that which guides them—the character, the heart, generous qualities, progressive ideas.", but I think he was full of shit. I tend to agree more with Lyall Watson, "If the brain were so simple we could understand it, we would be so simple we couldn't."
    To sleep, perchance to experience amygdalocortical activation and prefrontal deactivation.

  7. #7
    Oliphaunt The Original An Gadaí's avatar
    Registered
    Mar 2009
    Location
    Nowhere
    Posts
    2,933

    Default

    Here we go, the relevant passage from Brian Winston's Media, Technology & Society, p154/5:

    "The seductiveness of the analogy between human neural activity and digital symbol manipulators has proved irresistible. It has been characteristic of Western thought throughout the modern period, beginning with Lamettrie's L'Homme Machine in 1750. Seeing humanity in the image of which ever machine most dominates contemporary life is what might be called mechanemorphism. With Lamettrie it was the clock. The combustion engine followed. Freud thought electromagnets were a good metaphor for the brain. Today, this tendency finds its most extreme expression with the computer, especially amongst the proponents of 'strong' artificial intelligence. Mechanemorphism has conditioned not only our overall attitude to computers but also the very terminology that has arisen around them."

  8. #8
    Mi parolas esperanton malbone Trojan Man's avatar
    Registered
    Mar 2010
    Posts
    3,762

    Default

    A really sloppy, wrinkly Rubick's cube.

  9. #9
    Member
    Registered
    Jul 2010
    Posts
    97

    Default

    The human brain is like my feet. If I don't think too hard, they both get me where I'm going.

  10. #10
    my god, he's full of stars... OneCentStamp's avatar
    Registered
    Mar 2009
    Location
    Utah
    Posts
    6,993

    Default

    Quote Originally posted by spitz View post
    A really sloppy, wrinkly Rubick's cube.
    Rubik's scrotum?
    "You laugh at me because I'm different; I laugh at you because I'm on nitrous."

    find me at Goodreads

  11. #11
    A Dude Peeta Mellark's avatar
    Registered
    Sep 2010
    Location
    Posts
    1,028

    Default

    Yes, the brain is very much like a scrotum. Delicate, easily damaged, and very precious.

+ Reply to thread

Posting rules

  • You may not post new threads
  • You may not post replies
  • You may not post attachments
  • You may not edit your posts