I'm not a religious person, but surely atheists have better arguments than this! If so, why can brains make computers but computers can't make brains?https://twitter.com/Micksparklfc/status/974646192054439936 …
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David Graeber Retweeted Michael James
I'm not a religious person, but surely atheists have better arguments than this! If so, why can brains make computers but computers can't make brains?https://twitter.com/Micksparklfc/status/974646192054439936 …
David Graeber added,
(since I was mentioned here:) If brains are computers, it follows that computers are made by computers. If brains are large, complicated computers set up in a very specific way that we have not fully figured out yet, it would not be surprising that brains cannot make brains yet.
"set up" is a transitive verb. It implies some demiurgic force. This is one reason the computer metaphor seems so odd to me, especially coming from atheists. Computers are tools that someone created to serve a purpose. Brains are not.
Computer scientists define computers not as manmade tools, so this might be the source of our disagreement. A computer is a system that can change state in ways that are not completely random, and emulate a Turing Machine or something equally powerful, within its resource limits.
That's like saying I'm going to define a fish as anything that moves of its own accord, therefore, you are wrong to say that fish live in the water - or that people aren't really fish.
Sorry, but this is comparable to a comp scientist lecturing an anthropologist on some topic specific to anthropology. What is or isn't fish is defined by ichthyologists and other biologists, and what is a computer is defined by computer scientists.
Sure, most people do not have that definition in mind when they say "computer", but many (most?) people also think that whales and dolphins are fish, when they aren't.
Quite obviously I don’t claim that brains are rectangular boxes with silicon circuits and whirring fans inside :)
you completely miss my point that you have been using the word "computer" in two contradictory ways, that is, as marking two different hierarchical levels of semantic contrast,. This is basic logic stuff. Sorry. I shouldn't have to explain it to you.
If all x ϵ X are made by an y ϵ Y and Y ⊂ X, it follows that all x are made by an X, but not that all y can be made by an y. I have no idea why you think your condescension and general incivility is appropriate and hope it is ok if we just politely mute each other.
condescension was on your side, I just responded. You still haven't figured out the logic flaw in your argument. You were using "computer" BOTH as a term including brains, and as a term contrasted to brains. But you didn't define the latter contrast & even denied it existed
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