Tuesday, November 18, 2014

Mind, Brain , Computers

Why we the human beings are so much different from other animals on earth . We are the only beings on the planet who have made the best use of the brain and using the brain has lead to further evolutionary development of the brain and mind.

         The difference between brain and mind has to be understood . If we take the analogy of a computer then the mind is the is the software and the brain is the hardware. Even today scientists understand very little about the brain and its functions and as we know our brains are far better than any other computer or supercomputers that are built till today. 

      We have mental abilities and capacities that we are simply not able to inculcate into the computer. Now the computer is essentially a computing device . The microprocessor of the computer does trillions of arithmetical and logical operations per second. In case of supercomputers it can be in order of quadrillions of operations per second or beyond. 

      However we have the capacity of intuition ie understanding something without any analysis . The knowledge simply transcends. Just like the Graphical User Interface of a computer makes computing so much more intuitive there are many things that users learn without having been told how exactly those things should be done. 

      This can happen while studying physics or geometry . While in the process of studying something and understanding the subject images creeps up in the mind that helps the student visualize what he is studying. Many a times one finds alternative solutions of problems just as a flash in the mind. 

      There have been events where great discoveries are made in dreams : Like Kekule discovering the structure of Benzene. Indian mathematician Srinivasa Ramanujan claimed that he got solutions of his mathematical problems in dreams. A god appeared and drew figures and wrote the equations. 

    Again computers never goes to sleep like we do. So how does one inculcate the ability to dream in a computer? 

     Humans and even some animals have some inbuilt emotions. Humans control emotions the best as compared to other animals. Humans have emotions like Love, hate, anger , happiness , fear etc. No computer in the world has emotions. 

      One can only build computer that mimics humans only if humans understand themselves perfectly and lot remains to be learnt about the human mind and brain. 


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