Why your brain is a far more sophisticated machine than any modern computer
In short: Sir Charles Sherrington famously called the human brain an enchanted loom, a tapestry woven from one hundred thousand million nerve cell fibres. While computers excel at math, they remain pathetically simple-minded compared to the brain, which intelligently constructs a reliable model of the world from our sensory input.
In his 1982 Christmas Lectures at the Royal Institution, neurobiologist Colin Blakemore explored the brain as the ultimate instrument of perception. He argued that the brain is not merely a passive recipient of sensory data but a versatile, thoughtful machine. By integrating expectation, past experience, and diverse information sources, the brain transcends the raw signals provided by our sense organs. This process allows us to perceive a coherent model of reality that is often more reliable than the literal image captured by our retinas.
The complexity of this system is staggering. Blakemore noted that at least two-thirds of the human cerebral cortex is dedicated to analyzing and interpreting signals from our senses. This evolutionary development transformed simple connections between sense organs and muscles into the seat of reason, thought, and free will. Unlike early photosensitive animals, which could only distinguish between light and dark, humans possess the ability to identify objects regardless of their distance or orientation, assigning significance to the world around us.
While philosophers have long debated whether our perceptions accurately reflect the real world, Blakemore maintained that our sensory organs function as biological instruments of detection and measurement. The magic of perception lies in the collaboration between these organs and the brain. By searching for meaning and classifying sensory information, the brain acts as a sophisticated searcher for meaning, turning the restricted outlook provided by our windows on the world into a comprehensive, navigable reality.
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- Summary by Intellect · source: Enchanted loom - Colin Blakemore's 1982 Christmas Lectures 6/6
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