Buruneko wrote...
The brain is an object that has boggled the minds of many gentlemen and ladies.
However in order to comprehend something that is incomprehensible, we are forced
to resort to "similes" or "comparisons".
In the early ages they had the clock, and in our present age we have the computer.
We know we cannot compare a clock with a human brain.
But do we know if we can compare a human brain with a computer?
Are their structures similar?
Or completely different?
First of all, why do we need brains? Brains are required to compute sensory information and to move muscles accordingly. In other words, brains take input and produce output much like a computer. The definitions for computer and brain are very specific, but in the abstract sense, they are very comparable.
Let's think about it further and try to do an experiment where we can compare the two. Let's try to put a computer chip in the place of a mouse's brain. Now the only way we can tell the difference other than cutting the mouse's head open is what the mouse
does. Remember that what the mouse does is output and if the chip produces the same output for the same input as a mouse's brain then we can not tell the difference between the two. They would then be comparable and functionally equivalent. This experiment is a form of Turing test and is the definitive test for A.I. and unambiguously defines the parameters for intelligence. Therefore all that is required for a computer to become like a brain is to mimic it by doing comparable actions for the same inputs.
So the answer to your questions, yes we can compare the two and the internal mechanism or structure is irrelevant if the output is the same. If I replaced a person's brain with a computer that passed the Turing test then you wouldn't be able to tell the difference.