The Human Brain is a Machine

At least, that what atheist philosopher Daniel Dennett thinks . He argues that “we’re robots made of robots made of robots made of robots.” In other words, the brain is made up of millions upon millions of neurons, and each of those neurons is made up of eukaryotic cells, and each of those eukaryotic cells is made up of organelles, and each of those organelles is made up of proteins, and each of those proteins is . . . well, you get the idea.

Dennett then goes on to say that the sheer complexity of the human brain makes it nearly impossible to create a humanoid robot—that is, a robot with human-like intelligence. So, “we’re robots,” but robots aren’t us. Hmm . . .

And robots, as I understand it, don’t have free will. An absence of the will is what makes them robots. If that premise is true, and if Dennett is correct in saying “we’re robots,” I can’t for the life of me understand how he can talk about changing his mind when he thinks he made a mistake.

I guess when Dennett says “we’re all robots” he really means “everyone, that is, except me.”