"When we reduce the human brain to a computer metaphor, we risk confusing a simplified model of human cognition with the reality it represents."
In this Big Technology Podcast conversation, Michael Pollan argues that the brain-as-computer metaphor is useful but potentially misleading. He explains how neural processes, bodily feelings and subjective experience resist straightforward analogies to digital computation. His argument supports the book's criticism of treating simplified computational descriptions as complete accounts of human intelligence.