mac@uvacs.UUCP (02/08/84)
On whether the brain is a parallel processor... This seems like a poorly phrased question. The brain pretty obviously doesn't correspond closely to most "conventional" processors, parallel or otherwise. You might as well ask whether it uses semaphores or monitors for synchronization. Without a good idea of the way the brain works, the question shouldn't be asked. It's obviously capable of doing several things at once. So, for that matter is any sequential processor -- all the gates operate concurrently. Remember, among the koans posted to this group some time ago, the remark about the novice who asked whether PL/I had all the data types of LISP? As for using introspection instead of observation -- that's what makes philosophy of mind different from the experimental sciences.