‘The brain is not a computer’
Publish Date: 2026-02-27 22:00:00
Source Domain: www.lemonde.fr
- David W. Bates, an expert in cybernetics, argues that asking whether artificial intelligence (AI) will lead to the decline or enhancement of human intelligence is the wrong question.
- The term “artificial intelligence” reflects a historical comparison between human intelligence and computer systems since the 1950s, where the brain is conceptualized as akin to a computer, and vice versa.
- Bates believes that instead of AI merely simulating human functioning, there is a mutual metaphorical relationship developing, contributing to a philosophical crisis.
- He highlights the risk of humans becoming more automated in their thinking due to digital infrastructures and perceiving themselves as inferior to prediction machines.
- Bates suggests a loss of human agency as people start to understand themselves more in terms of computers, influencing not just daily life but also self-perception and conceptualizations of intelligence.
