, 1 min read
Consciousness and free will are illusions: you are just a robot
As a computer scientist, it is natural for me to view the brain as a computer. And though computers have different abilities, they are also very much all equivalent at a fundamental level. You have machines that can read and execute instructions. Some machines can run faster, others can hold more instructions… but these are details. Your computer may use transistors, DNA methylation, an actual mechanical tape or neurons, but that’s just a matter of implementation.
Unlike digital computers, our brains evolved to support software functions that we do not fully understand yet.
I have kids. They are my kids. I look outside. There is snow. I can type at this computer. I know who “I” am.
I don’t understand “how” my brain does all that. I could not reproduce it in a digital computer I would build. I am, nevertheless, convinced that there is nothing magical going on. There is no need for action at a distance or mysterious quantum effects. That we do not yet understand something does not mean that it has to be particularly complicated or that it requires techniques that are far above ours. In 1900, nobody could build a plane. In 1915, planes were used for critical missions in the first great war.
Further reading: Time Slices: What Is the Duration of a Percept?