Way smarter people than both of us disagree: among them being Roger Penrose, who wrote two books on this very subject.
See also my comment here: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45804258
"There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio, than are dreamt of in your philosophy"
I never claimed no one speculates that's the case, I claimed there was no evidence. Just cite me a concrete example where the human mind is capable of computing something that violates the theory of computation.
> "There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio, than are dreamt of in your philosophy"
Fully agree, but you are specifically discussing philosophical statements. And the fact that the only response you have is to continue to pile undefined terms and hand wave metaphysics doesn't do anything to further your point.
You believe that computing machines lack something magical that you can't describe that makes them different than humans. I can't object to your feelings about that, but there is literally nothing to discuss if you can't even define what those things are, hence this discussion is, as the original parent comment mention, is "extremely boring".
What keeps things interesting is that there are arguments (on both sides) which everyone can weigh against each other so as to arrive at their own conclusions. But that requires genuine curiosity, not just an interest in confirming one's own dogmas. Seems like you might be more of this latter persuasion, but in case you are not, I listed a couple of references which you could explore at your leisure.
I also pointed out that one of the (if not the) greatest physicists alive wrote two books on a subject which you consider extremely boring. I would hope any reasonable, non-narcissistic person would conclude that they must have been missing out on something. It's not like Roger Penrose is so bored with his life and the many fascinating open questions he could apply his redutable mind to, that he had to pick this particular obviously settled one. I'm not saying you should come to the same conclusions as him, just plant a little doubt around how exactly "extremely boring" these questions might be :)
I suspect the core issue here isn't my "lack of curiosity" but your lack of understanding about the theory of computation.
The theory computation builds up various mathematical models and rules for how things are computed, not by computers, how things are computed period. The theory of computation holds as much for digital computers as it does for information processing of yeast in a vat.
Evidence that human minds (or anything really) do something other than what's computational would be as simple as "look we can solve the halting problem" or "this task can be solved in polynomial time by humans". Without evidence like that, then there is no grounds for attacking the fundamental theory.
> What keeps things interesting is that there are arguments (on both sides) which everyone can weigh against each other so as to arrive at their own conclusions.
Conclusions about what? You haven't even stated your core hypothesis. Is it "Human brains are different than computers"? Sure that's obvious, but are the different in an interesting way? If it's "computers can think!" then you just need to describe what thinking is.
> how exactly "extremely boring" these questions might be :)
Again, you're misunderstanding, because my point is that you haven't even asked the question clearly. There is nothing for me to have an opinion about, hence why it is boring. "Can machines think?" is the same as asking "Can machines smerve?" If you ask "what do you mean by 'smerve'?" and I say "see you're not creative/open-minded enough about smerving!" you would likely think that conversation was uninteresting, especially if I refused to define 'smerving' and just kept making arguments from authority and criticizing your imaginative capabilities.
