People are not computers: (most) thought processes are not computational procedures
The computational conception of the mind that dominates cognitive science assumes that thought processes involve the computation of algorithms or the execution of functions. Human minds turn out to be automatic formal systems or physical syntax-processing systems. The objection has often been posed that systems of this kind do not possess sufficient conditions for mentality, because the syntax they process may be meaningless for those systems. That problem concerns their semantic content. Here an additional objection is posed that systems of this kind, as normatively-directed, problem-solving causal systems, impose conditions that are not necessary for mentality, because many if not most human thought processes violate them. This problem concerns their causal character. The computational conception reflects an overgeneralization about human thought processes based on special kinds of thinking and thus seems to be trivial or false.
computation thought cognition algorithm function program reasoning consciousness symbol system semiotic system