[ExI] Is the brain a digital computer?

[Gordon Swobe]

--- On Mon, 2/22/10, Stathis Papaioannou <stathisp at gmail.com> wrote:

> You're setting yourself up for the obvious reply: it is
> possible to make an artificial heart that pumps blood just as well as...

Your answer misses the point. I'll try again in a different way:

You have three powerful futuristic digital computers, call them H, S, and B, running on the desk in front of you. On H runs a copy of some futuristic software titled "Simulated Heart v. 1254". On S runs a copy of "Simulated Stomach v. 2434". On B runs a copy of "Simulated Brain v. 0989873". 

On computer H the simulated heart simulates the processing of simulated blood, and you have no objection I assume to my saying the simulated heart running on H doesn't really pump blood.

On computer S the simulated stomach simulates the processing of simulated food, and you have no objection I assume to my saying the simulated stomach running on S doesn't really process food.

On computer B the simulated brain simulates the processing of simulated thoughts, but here you do object when I tell you the simulated brain doesn't really think. Here you want to tell me the simulated brain really does think real thoughts.

How do you explain your inconsistency? 

More precisely, why do you classify "thoughts" in a different category than you do "blood" and "food", if not because you have adopted a dualistic world-view in which mental phenomena fall into a different category than do ordinary material entities?

-gts