Why Our Minds Are More Than “Meat Computers”
Some scientists and philosophers hold the view that our brains are basically brains made of meat. Today, Dr. Eric Holloway and Dr. Robert J. Marks explain what’s wrong with this idea in the concluding segment of their conversation with guest host Patrick Flynn. For starters, the computational theory of mind may be incompatible with materialism or physicalism, as formal, abstract thought appears to transcend the physical realm. Then there’s the argument that the human mind cannot be reduced to a computational system as suggested by mathematical ideas such as Gödel’s incompleteness theorems. Computationalism also fails to adequately account for human creativity and the generation of genuinely novel ideas, which appear to be beyond the capabilities of any computer program. It turns out the human mind is more than just a “meat computer,” and that has practical implications in the fields of AI, the economy, and even everyday living. It’s time to move beyond the the computational theory of mind.
