The value of electronic computers derives from the fact they can "differentially activate" electronic devices (graphics cards -> lcd screens, etc.). If they werent electronic, they'd be basically useless -- since electricity is essentially the only "power transmission" force which we can reliably use.

I do think much of the metaphorical language we use around these devices completely mystifies them. These abstractions we use fail all the time, and reveal themselves as deceptions. We ought, often, get back to reality.

The reality of NNs, implemented on electronic devices, is that they can accept digitally encoded electronic signals and output likewise, where the variations in output signals are models of conditional probability structures

This, as a an analogy for learning, for animals, for people, etc. is madness; provably so. It's a convenient pseudoscience, for an era obsessed with the power of electricity to power devices of automation, rather than steam. Were we in the steam age, The Brain would be hydaulic. The gullible in the intelligensia are always obsessed by the baubles and trinkets of elite appeal.