The brain is like the Internet....

February 10, 2002 5:25 PM

The brain is like the Internet.... Scary, huh...especially since things can go wrong...
posted by bunnyfire (4 comments total)

Its an interesting article.. but it dates from 1996 and to compare the brain to the internet while seductive as the article points out the brain is controlled by chemical processes.
posted by stbalbach at 6:54 PM on February 10, 2002

The nervous system would be a better analogy to the internet, as it uses electrical signals to communicate information node to node, up to the brain, and the brain relays back a signal, causing a reflex or a muscle action. (I was actually thinking about this in Psychology class)

The brain analogy fails simply because the internet has no level of unified consciousness, it (the internet) does not work in a coherent system to control all the body's functions (replace body with computers).

Maybe if we were all hooked up to eachother like the Borg (via the internet), then the internet would be like a brain.
posted by insomnyuk at 7:44 PM on February 10, 2002

my cranial backhoe operator forgot to call miss dig.
posted by quonsar at 6:43 AM on February 11, 2002

The brain analogy fails simply because the internet has no level of unified consciousness

I was just wondering if you could explain the mechanism of consciousness in the brain for me. I've been wondering about it, and I didn't know it had been solved.
posted by walrus at 5:30 AM on February 12, 2002