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This is not a fact.
The physics that gives rise to the brain is pretty much known. We can model all the protons, electrons and photons incredibly accurately. It's an extraordinary claim you say the brain doesn't function according to these known mechanisms.
Personally I believe it’s likely that the brain can essentially be reduced to a computation, but we have no proof of that.
If all you have is a hammer...
The nature of consciousness is an open question. We don't know whether the brain is equivalent to a Turing machine.
We can't even accurately model a receptor protein on a cell or the binding of its ligands, nor can we accurately simulate a single neuron.
This is one of those hard problems in computing and medicine. It is very much an open question about how or if we can model complex biology accurately like that.
You are saying "If we know how something works, we can explain how it works using math."
But we know almost nothing about how the brain works.
> The physics that gives rise to the brain is pretty much known.
...no it is not! No physicist would describe any physical phenomenon as being "pretty much known". Let alone cognition. We don't even have a complete atomic model.
Does the brain fall in into the category of “understood natural phenomenon”? Is it “understood”? What does “understood” mean in this context?
Why? Burden of proof is on you.
You have it reversed. Math is a language tool to describe things, in a limited fashion (our current modeling). One is physical matter (even if it's antimatter). If you believe that there will be a language that can describe anything, it still doesn't manifest matter by speaking that language or describing it...unless you're into magic or spirits or whatever.
This disconnect has nothing to do with how well we do or do not understand physical phenomena. I think what the OP meant to say (and probably you support) is how the "mind" or how we think, can be described with mathematical models. Maybe one day we will have a full understanding, but we're not there yet and not currently in a way that is legally compelling.
