Is the Brain a Computer? A Debate Over LLMs, Intelligence and Hidden Dualism
WillRinehart · x · 2026-09-16
Responding to critics who dismiss LLMs as 'a Python loop,' Philippe argues such claims reveal entrenched implicit dualism — the assumption that computer programs can't be intelligent — while the brain itself is just a 'wet computer' shaped by billions of years of dumb evolutionary selection. Will Rinehart agrees on the intelligence point but invokes Kenneth Burke's dictum that 'a way of seeing is also a way of not seeing' to object to the brain-as-computer metaphor, since every framing inevitably neglects something else.
Related event: Debate Over LLM Intelligence Reveals Hidden Dualism(2 posts)→
More from AGI Musings
- Researcher: talk directly to AI labs' biosecurity teams, not their CEOs' polished takes — anshulkundaje · 2026-09-16
- Defending AI consciousness research: investigating model welfare is sane, not silly — rgblong · 2026-09-16
- Researcher: AI lab employees are genuinely worried, but conspiracies are used to dismiss concerns — NathanpmYoung · 2026-09-16
- AI May Reveal Which Scientific Activities Truly Build Understanding — mioana · 2026-09-16
- When Machines Can Do It, Do Humans Still Compete? On Scarcity and Skill Value — mioana · 2026-09-16
- After 24 Fields Medalists Warn on AI Misalignment, Counterargument Says Math's Definition of Understanding Has Always Evolved — RexDouglass · 2026-09-16