The brain is a computer is a brain: neuroscience's internal debate and the social significance of the Computational Metaphor
It highlights a critical gap in neuroscience by addressing the metaphor's social implications, which could influence public discourse and policy on AI ethics.
This essay examines the Computational Metaphor's social impact, arguing that it shapes societal interactions with AI and may perpetuate biases like racism and ableism, calling for a new lexicon to describe computational systems.
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.