Why Our Brains Don’t Work Like Machines

If you have seen any more than a few science fiction movies, than you’re probably familiar with the idea of “Super-computers”, they can find and solve a trillion problems in one billionth of a second with extreme accuracy... at least, that’s what the movies say.

So where does this trend of insanely powerful and precise computers in sci-fi movies come from? In my opinion, it’s a combination of fantasy and today’s computers; they can solve almost any straight forward problem very quickly (i.e. math), which makes them seem quite a bit more competent than our brains. However, they are missing quite a few things before they can approach the Human Brain’s intelligence.

In every single piece of programming we use, the information for the program to function is either already there, or the program is given a perfectly functioning formula to make the information 100% available. Our brains, however, rarely (if ever) have all of the information needed to make a perfect decision. In order to account for this, our brains use “the power of estimation”.

In theory, our brains use emotional experience and physical experience, in conjunction with the current situation and mood to make a well calculated decision. If there is information missing (like there almost always is), the brain guesses at what that information is (i.e. you learn that your friend is buying a car, and her favourite color is purple, there for you would guess that she is going to buy a purple car).

Our brain also uses “the power of estimation” to get past those text emulators on websites to prevent spamming. However, once we develop machines that can use “the power of estimation”, what will become of the usefulness of those anti-spam text images, and the human brain?