8 Things Scientists Still Don't Understand About Your Brain

4. Are We Just Computers?

The generally received wisdom these days is that the human brain is essentially a classical information processor - a computer. A very advanced one, sure, but a computer nonetheless.

If this were true then it would be that it would be entirely possible to artificially reproduce a perfect human mind in a machine. Given the right levels of detail and complexity, this computer would have full human consciousness and be completely indistinguishable from the real thing.

However, the instinctive unlikeliness of this leads some to believe that the brain is not computable, and that no amount of reverse-engineering would allow us to reproduce it. Some experts believe that the organic brain is fundamentally different from a computer because its functions are made up of nonlinear interactions among billions of cells as opposed to the zeros and ones of a computer.

The human brain can "compute" some things, but not others, and figuring out the difference between them could be the key to understanding it once and for all.