THOUGHTS
ABOUT HUMAN/COMPUTER ANALOGIES
Francis Jeffrey
The analogy between the computer and the brain is certainly one
of the great ideas dominating the 20th Century and shaping the
near future. This analogy includes both the use of the brain as
a metaphor for the computer, and the use of the computer as a
metaphor for the brain. Today, a generation after Ashby (and his
scientific contemporaries) glimpsed the computer metaphor as an
explanatory principle for the brain, substantial work is
underway on both sides of the brain/computer analogy. A new
scientific field, called Computational Neurophysiology, is
enthusiastically exploring the brain/computer analogy to develop
new understanding of how the brain works in generating behavior
and ideas. A parallel effort, on the technology side, is busy
designing new types of computers to better capture the brain's
natural talents and reproduce them in technology. Currently,
much of this effort is going into the creation of "neural
nets."
http://elfi.com/analogies1.html