I challenged the statement "the brain is like a computer".
Speaking as a computer scientist, among other things, and speaking as one who is reasonably sure he has a brain, I have yet to see a computer patterned after the human brain.
The link you've shown talks about machine-learning and deep-learning. These are two methodologies for classification, based on training data. They can work well and they can make mistakes. But they are two static methodologies. Think of each as an advanced algorithm, if you like. Yes, they can be sophisticated. They can play chess and predict chaotic systems like no other system can. Even the brain cannot predict targets of chaotic systems the way some of these systems can, based on training data.
Now when you show me a methodology that learns, remembers, corrects its mistakes and keeps learning, then you can say we have something between an algorithm and a primitive brain. But even the idea of "remembering" is absent in these systems.
Just so you know, deep-learning (neural networks) and machine-learning (pattern recognition, cluster analysis, classification) were around in the 1980s. A small idea just after 2000 or so, and the advent of certain computing machines made these practical. Of course, every time technology hits main street, it becomes the best thing since sliced bread until the next distraction. This is marketing --- for research funds, for projects, for applications, for notoriety. The majority of people have simply forgotten how to be completely honest.
Will machines be able to do more? Yes. Can they be made to behave more like humans? Yes. Can you ask them to construct proofs? No. That is just one of the reasons that machines and human brains are different.
Think in this way. Western medicine sees that you are missing one leg and it studies every aspect of the human leg and it builds a leg for you --- one that looks and feels like a human leg. It may fool everybody else but it does not fool you. When you wear it you know it's a fake leg and is far from the real thing. Given a choice you'd prefer to have your old leg back. |
