The brain is a computer is a brain: neuroscience's internal debate and the social significance of the Computational Metaphor

TL;DR

This paper examines the widespread use of the Computational Metaphor in neuroscience and AI, questioning its scientific validity and exploring its societal impacts, including potential biases and ethical concerns.

Contribution

It highlights the social implications of the Computational Metaphor and calls for neuroscientists to consider its societal effects beyond scientific debates.

Findings

The metaphor influences societal perceptions of AI and neuroscience.

Concerns about bias and ethical issues linked to the metaphor.

Calls for a reevaluation of language used in AI and neuroscience.

Abstract

The Computational Metaphor, comparing the brain to the computer and vice versa, is the most prominent metaphor in neuroscience and artificial intelligence (AI). Its appropriateness is highly debated in both fields, particularly with regards to whether it is useful for the advancement of science and technology. Considerably less attention, however, has been devoted to how the Computational Metaphor is used outside of the lab, and particularly how it may shape society's interactions with AI. As such, recently publicized concerns over AI's role in perpetuating racism, genderism, and ableism suggest that the term "artificial intelligence" is misplaced, and that a new lexicon is needed to describe these computational systems. Thus, there is an essential question about the Computational Metaphor that is rarely asked by neuroscientists: whom does it help and whom does it harm? This essay invites the neuroscience community to consider the social implications of the field's most controversial metaphor.