My inconsistent lab results showed that the human brain is very dissimilar to a machine. While a machine is capable of repeating a programmed task ad infinitum, my results were shoddy at best. My results varied on several variables such as external distractions and concentration levels; at times i lost interest in the ruler and tried to guess when my partner was going to drop it, resulting in either superhuman reaction times, or missing the ruler all together. Machines do not get impatient and go about doing whatever they feel like.
I would argue that you are thinking about machines in too simplistic a fashion. When we think of machines, we normally imagine robots with no thought at all, only reactions to stimulus. However, there is technically no difference between human being -- or any life, for that matter -- and an appropriately complex machine. Our innumerable genes are our programs, our body our structure, albeit made of carbon rather than metal. With enough time and precision, one could build a human being from scratch in much the way that a machine is built.
I've drawn away from the point a bit, but what I'm trying to get at is that no matter how random or inconsistent our brains seem to be, they are nonetheless controlled by cause and effect, stimulus and response, just on a mindbogglingly minute level. Your extreme variability in results merely illustrates "poor programming". (I jest, I jest.)
-- Edited by 102intro on Tuesday 15th of September 2009 09:06:56 PM
