The Human Brain as a Computer (Or, Why Humans are Doomed to Fail)

Chaos. Nature likes it. It might not sound right, but it's true.

Nature also favors limitations. Every species has something that it's just not meant to be able to do.

Humans? We clearly don't get these concepts!

We have populated more of the planet than we're actually physically capable of living in, by sheer determination and willpower. We use resources to heat and cool and create ridiculous outfits to help us survive.

Good job!

Except that my real point is about the first fact- nature favors chaos.

So, we have all kinds of things today that are intended to maintain stability. Organizers, schedules, federal institutions like...laws and schools and other things that I've kind of ignored the last 16 or so years of my life.

Even our brain, a veritable squished lump of tissue, has found a highly organized comparison- to a computer.

(Side note- have you ever held a human brain? It's ridiculously heavy and squishy and kind of looks like someone tried to tie-dye a shirt and it went horribly wrong. Seriously. They're kind of gross.)

Regardless of it's misshapen awkwardness, the brain is compared to, arguably, the most important human creation since the wheel. It makes sense- our brains are electrically-based and keep different types of information in their designated areas.

Got a memory? Put it in "My Videos."
Got a reminder? Put it on a post-it note.
Got a picture? We have a "My Pictures" folder preloaded and ready to go!

We're obsessed with organization and levels. We feel a compulsion to break everything down to its most basic component.

As if the concept of things existing was too easy, it became a composition of elements; elements are atoms. And thank what you will that atoms can be divided even further! Life needed to know that protons existed- really.

This has extended to all of society! We use Platonic forms (you know, that handy general idea of what something should be like) to code everything.

I think the fact that humans go against these basic principles shows how badly we're doomed to fail as a species. Up to this point we've done pretty well for ourselves...but nature will always find a way to kick our asses back to that fine line between stability and chaos.

And we're so far from that line right now that we will probably, literally, be thrown back into the stone ages.