Is the brain actually a computer? Or is this a metaphor or analogy which is often taken too literally? This issue has come up a few times in the past couple of years, and I wanted to give my take because some common responses do not seem right to me.
I'm going to argue the brain really is literally a computer and that this is not a metaphor or analogy at all. Many of the experts who disagree with this are neuroscientists, biologists and philosophers. We have much to learn from them about how the brain works, but that's not the only issue. To answer the question of whether a brain is a computer we also need to consider what a computer is, and I feel this side of the equation is too often neglected.
