Posted by Tomatheus on September 19, 2006, at 23:00:03
In reply to Re: the brain, posted by alexandra_k on September 19, 2006, at 5:04:17
> Lets suppose I'm trying to write this computer program and the program isn't working. I take the back off my computer looking for something to fix. I mean... Computers are physical systems aren't they? If the program isn't working then shouldn't I tinker around with the hardware in order to fix the program?
Of course not. But if the hard drive is malfunctioning, adding new software or removing potentially problematic software won't get to the root of the problem. In the case that I described, no competent computer engineer would say that attempting to repair the malfunction in the hard drive is just "masking the real problem" or like providing the computer with a "crutch."
Obviously, problems with both the hardware and the software of a computer can occur. And the two types of problems need to be addressed in different ways. It's also conceivable that problems with both a computer's hardware and its software could interfere with its ability to function optimally, in which case both problems would need to be addressed appropriately.
Because we created computers, we obviously understand how they work and what causes them to stop functioning properly better than we understand how we "work" and what causes us to function less than optimally. Just because we don't fully all of the processes that contribute to the way we function mentally doesn't mean that we should dismiss the things that we do know as being pseudoscientific or that we shouldn't keep trying to improve our understanding of these processes (I'm not saying that you've suggested these things, but there are a lot of people out there who have).
I'd like to think that we'd want to put our own well-being over that of our computers, but it seems from the rhetoric of some groups and individuals that there is not universal agreement that humans should be a priority.
Tomatheus
poster:Tomatheus
thread:686603
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20060919/msgs/687558.html