The Human Brain Vs The Computer Essay

The Human Brain Vs. The Computer Essay, Research Paper

The Human Brain vs. the Computer

Over the millennia, Man has come up with countless inventions, each more ingenious than the last. However, only now, as the computer arises that mankind’s sentience itself is threatened. Ridiculous, some may cry, but I say look about you! The computer has already begun to hold sway over so many of the vital functions that man has prided himself upon before. Our lives are now dependent upon the computer and what it tells you. Even now, I type this essay upon a computer, fully trusting that it will produce a result far superior to what I can manage with my own to hands and little else.

It has been commonly said that the computer can never replace the human brain, for it is humans that created them. Is this a good reason why the computer must be inferior to humans? Is it always true that the object cannot surpass its creator? How can this be true? Even if we just focus on a single creation of man, say the subject of this essay, the computer, there are many ways in which the computer has the edge over man. Let us start with basic calculation. The computer has the capability to evaluate problems that man can hardly even imagine, let alone approach. Even if a man can calculate the same problems as a computer, the computer can do it far faster than he can possibly achieve. Let us go one step further. Say this man can calculate as fast as a computer, can he, as the computer can, achieve a 100% rate of accuracy in his calculation? Why do we now go over the human data entry into a computer when a mistake is noticed instead of checking the computer? It is because computers now possess the ability to hold no error in its operation, where mankind has not advanced in this area in any noticeable margin. Why do you think the words ‘human error’ and ‘to err is human’ have become so popular in recent years? It is because the failings of the human race are becoming more and more exposed as the computer advances and becomes more and more omnipotent.

Perhaps the computer is not truly a competitor with the human brain but rather its ideal. After all, the computer is far superior to the human brain in those aspects where the brain is weakest. It is perhaps the attempt of the human brain to attain perfection after realising its own weaknesses. If you think about it carefully, do those who use the computer not use it supplement their own creative input? Maybe it is the subconscious attempt by us at reaching the next stage of evolution by our minds, creating a machine to do all the dirty work for us while we sit back and allow our brains to focus on creating, or destroying, as the case may be. This machine is the compensation for the human brain’s weaknesses.

The human brain has flaws in abundance, yet it also has many an edge over the computer. It has the capacity to create, unlike the computer, and it can work without full input, making logical assumptions about problems. A person can work with a wide variety of methods, seeing new, more efficient ways of handling problems. It can come up with infinite ways of getting around problems encountered in day to day life, whilst a computer has a limited repertoire of new tricks it can come up with, limited by its programming. Should improved programming be introduced, it is the human brain that figures out the programming that will allow leeway for any improvements as vaguely conceived by the human brain. It is the human brain that conceptualises the formulae and methods by which the computer goes about its work. The human brain, given the time, can learn to understand anything, it can grasp the central concept of any concept, whilst the computer tends to take all things in their entirety, which makes some problems near impossible to solve. Emotions too are an asset. Emotions allow the human brain to have evolved beyond a problem-solving machine. In truth, one characteristic of sentience, as we know it, is emotional maturity! Even a one-year-old baby knows infinitely more about emotions than the most sophisticated computers. Emotions open the mind to vast, new realms of possibilities. The reason why computers cannot create is because of the lack of emotions. Anger allows the imagination to roam, inventing concepts of new, ever more powerful weapons of destruction. Discontent induces the mind to conceive of new methods of fulfilment that could be expanded into something more. Puzzlement causes the mind to think of solutions. Curiosity leads to attempts to satisfy it, producing new discoveries and revelations.

The computer, on the other hand, though lacking in many aspects, is clearly the superior in many other aspects. In sheer speed of computation and retrieval of data, the computer is obviously by far the stronger. It has the capacity to handle things on a far grander scale than the human brain could ever conceive. The capacity to organise is massively improved as compared to the human brain. Measurements, results, applications can all be done down to the tiniest details, far beyond the human brain’s capabilities. Calculations can be done with an accuracy nearly impossible to achieve manually. A certain uniformity can be achieved in its functions, something a human can hardly hope to achieve.

The human brain has many flaws just as it has advantages. The random mindset of the human brain gives allowance for many mistake