Computational Mind

December 14th, 2006 Fred McVittie Posted in Cognition, Computation, Mind |

The mind is (partly) a computer, programmed by the body, which is, in turn, designed through evolutionary interactions with the environment. Or, ‘the mind is embodied, and the body is embedded’. But this may not be saying very much.

A few years ago the only objects capable of performing computations were brains and room-sized mainframes. Now computing is relatively ubiquitous, taking place routinely in our phones, toys, kitchen appliances, clocks, cars etc. This increasing distribution of computation is likely to continue, and will, at some point become routine, part of the fabric of our experience. We will soon refer to the computational abilities of material with the matter-of-factness that we currently use when talking about a materials strength, or weight, or colour. At that point, (and we are already seeing the signs of this), the concept of the brain as kind of computer will cease to be interesting. Of course the brain is a computer, and of course part of its functioning is the wielding and manipulation of symbols. But when computation is commonplace and everything computes we will feel obliged to ask ‘what else does the brain do?’.