The Brain, In Theory | Princeton University Press
We use cookies to improve your experience, serve personalized ads and content, and understand our traffic. Privacy Policy Banner closes automatically in s... Neuroscience & Psychology Why engineering and computational analogies are poorly suited to the study of biological cognition Mainstream theories of the brain are often expressed through engineering concepts—computation, code, control, reverse-engineering, optimization. These theories cast the living organism as a machine and the brain as a computer. The fact that cognition is a biological phenomenon seems merely anecdotal; biology is considered just “implementation.” In The Brain, In Theory, Romain Brette argues that the brain is not a “biological computer” because living organisms are not engineered. Engineering is the use of knowledge to solve technical problems, to build an artifact with a plan. But, Brette reminds us, Darwin’s insight is precisely that evolution is not a case of engineering. Unlike engineering, evolution has