Humans think -- AI, not so much. Science explains why our brains aren't just fancy computers

[marmar]

Humans think — AI, not so much. Science explains why our brains aren't just fancy computers
New research is revealing how specialized neurons give our brains an edge artificial intelligence can only dream of

By Carlyn Zwarenstein
Published April 25, 2025 5:30AM (EDT)


(Salon) The world, and countless generations of interactions with it, coaxed our brains to evolve in the unique way that humans perceive reality. And yet, thanks to the past century's developments in cognitive science and now artificial intelligence, we have entrenched a view of the brain that doesn't spend much time on this dynamic. Instead, most of us tend to see our brains as a "network" made of undifferentiated brain cells. These neurons produce cognition by the patterns in which groups of them fire at once — a model that has inspired advanced computers and AI.

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In fact, in the modern, popular understanding of the brain, we really tend to think of this organ as a sophisticated version of the technology it inspired. Merriam-Webster defines neural network as "a computer architecture in which a number of processors are interconnected in a manner suggestive of the connections between neurons in a human brain and which is able to learn by a process of trial and error." This is a typical definition, in which the computer-brain analogy focuses on the distributed connections between neurons (or, in a computer, nodes) with no attention to what exactly those neurons are for.

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There are brain cells that represent entire concepts, some with an affinity for visual information and others for olfactory input. Scientists have also found neurons that can encode entire concepts with the firing of a single cell, or that are devoted to specific aspects of cognition and how we represent the world, and that fire when their particular function is needed: warm-sensitive neurons, place cells and related time cells, olfactory concept cells, visual concept cells, Lepr neurons that control metabolism... the list of discoveries is long and still growing.

....(snip)....

There are brain cells that represent entire concepts, some with an affinity for visual information and others for olfactory input. Scientists have also found neurons that can encode entire concepts with the firing of a single cell, or that are devoted to specific aspects of cognition and how we represent the world, and that fire when their particular function is needed: warm-sensitive neurons, place cells and related time cells, olfactory concept cells, visual concept cells, Lepr neurons that control metabolism... the list of discoveries is long and still growing. .....................(more)

https://www.salon.com/2025/04/25/humans-think--ai-not-so-much-science-explains-why-our-brains-arent-just-fancy-computers/

[SheltieLover]

1. Kick.

I detest ai.