Thread: How are we not a computer?

Originally Posted by ClouD

Isn't it a given? Eternity is, what else?
Nothing is everything, both terms encompass the infinite/all-that-is in totality, so dividing/comparing the two seems pointless. Though that's probably not how you intend to come across.
The teaching is for our minds, to what? Teach us what we are[n't]? Seems to be redundant if we are already. It doesn't seem to answer the question that this thread poses, though.

What is the difference between a computer and us?
What is consciousness, but the illusion of choice? Is consciousness not real? Are our actions simply reactions, are they just part of the process? Can we be aware of anything that is not from the processes of our programming?

Can a computer be?

You're deflecting what I'm saying, not grasping it. The relevance of no-self is that consciousness is real, but not what we suppose it to be. We are carried by the flow of events, and also guide that flow, not either/or. To the extent that our electrochemical processes resemble programming at all, we have collaborated in that programming and, more than any other part of the universe, are responsible for it. As a species, and to some extent as individuals, we choose our own programming and each other's.

But again, referring to human "programming" is only metaphor. To ask, "Can we be aware of anything that is not from the processes of our programming?" exceeds the reach of that metaphor, so that either answer, yes or no, is nonsense. A computer is literally programmed; its intelligence is only the intelligence of its creators, based on their understanding of its operation and their skill at using it. It's a tool derived, I'll say again, from only a sliver of the activity of human intelligence.

"Are our actions...reactions?"

Yes.

"Are our actions simply reactions?"

No.

Originally Posted by Taosaur

"Are our actions...reactions?"

Yes.

"Are our actions simply reactions?"

No.

See above post. In short, while it may appear that our actions transcend reactions, the processes that lead up to them are, in fact, merely reactions.