Here’s why we’ll never be able to build a brain in a computer
It’s easy to equate brains and computers – they’re both thinking machines, after all. But the comparison doesn’t really stand up to closer inspection, as Dr. Lisa Feldman Barrett reveals.
People often describe the brain as a computer, as if neurons are like hardware and the mind is software. But this metaphor is deeply flawed.
A computer is built from static parts, whereas your brain constantly rewires itself as you age and learn. A computer stores information in files that are retrieved exactly, but brains don’t store information in any literal sense. Your memory is a constant construction of electrical pulses and swirling chemicals, and the same remembrance can be reassembled in different ways at different times.
Brains also do something critical that computers today can’t. A computer can be trained with thousands of photographs to recognise a dandelion as a plant with green leaves and yellow petals. You, however, can look at a dandelion and understand that in different situations it belongs to different categories. A dandelion in your vegetable garden is a weed, but in a bouquet from your child it’s a delightful flower. A dandelion in a salad is food, but people also consume dandelions as herbal medicine.
In other words, your brain effortlessly categorises objects by their function, not just their physical form. Some scientists believe that this incredible ability of the brain, called ad hoc category construction, may be fundamental to the way brains work.
Also, unlike a computer, your brain isn’t a bunch of parts in an empty case. Your brain inhabits a body, a complex web of systems that include over 600 muscles in motion, internal organs, a heart that pumps 7,500 litres of blood per day, and dozens of hormones and other chemicals, all of which must be coordinated, continually, to digest food, excrete waste, provide energy and fight illness.[…]
If we want a computer that thinks, feels, sees or acts like us, it must regulate a body – or something like a body – with a complex collection of systems that it must keep in balance to continue operating, and with sensations to keep that regulation in check. Today’s computers don’t work this way, but perhaps some engineers can come up with something that’s enough like a body to provide this necessary ingredient.
For now, ‘brain as computer’ remains just a metaphor. Metaphors can be wonderful for explaining complex topics in simple terms, but they fail when people treat the metaphor as an explanation. Metaphors provide the illusion of knowledge.
(Adapted from https://www.sciencefocus.com/future-technology/can-we-build-brain-computer/ Published: 24th October, 2021, retrieved on February 9th, 2022)
Based on the text, mark the statements below as TRUE (T) or FALSE (F).
( ) Unlike a computer, it is hard for our brain to classify objects according to a specific purpose.
( ) The author rules out the possibility that computers may emulate the human brain someday.
( ) The brain adapts as one both matures and becomes more knowledgeable.
The statements are, respectively:
“Whereas” in “A computer is built from static parts, whereas your brain constantly rewires itself as you age and learn” introduces a(n):
Here’s why we’ll never be able to build a brain in a computer
It’s easy to equate brains and computers – they’re both thinking machines, after all. But the comparison doesn’t really stand up to closer inspection, as Dr. Lisa Feldman Barrett reveals.
People often describe the brain as a computer, as if neurons are like hardware and the mind is software. But this metaphor is deeply flawed.
A computer is built from static parts, whereas your brain constantly rewires itself as you age and learn. A computer stores information in files that are retrieved exactly, but brains don’t store information in any literal sense. Your memory is a constant construction of electrical pulses and swirling chemicals, and the same remembrance can be reassembled in different ways at different times.
Brains also do something critical that computers today can’t. A computer can be trained with thousands of photographs to recognise a dandelion as a plant with green leaves and yellow petals. You, however, can look at a dandelion and understand that in different situations it belongs to different categories. A dandelion in your vegetable garden is a weed, but in a bouquet from your child it’s a delightful flower. A dandelion in a salad is food, but people also consume dandelions as herbal medicine.
In other words, your brain effortlessly categorises objects by their function, not just their physical form. Some scientists believe that this incredible ability of the brain, called ad hoc category construction, may be fundamental to the way brains work.
Also, unlike a computer, your brain isn’t a bunch of parts in an empty case. Your brain inhabits a body, a complex web of systems that include over 600 muscles in motion, internal organs, a heart that pumps 7,500 litres of blood per day, and dozens of hormones and other chemicals, all of which must be coordinated, continually, to digest food, excrete waste, provide energy and fight illness.[…]
If we want a computer that thinks, feels, sees or acts like us, it must regulate a body – or something like a body – with a complex collection of systems that it must keep in balance to continue operating, and with sensations to keep that regulation in check. Today’s computers don’t work this way, but perhaps some engineers can come up with something that’s enough like a body to provide this necessary ingredient.
For now, ‘brain as computer’ remains just a metaphor. Metaphors can be wonderful for explaining complex topics in simple terms, but they fail when people treat the metaphor as an explanation. Metaphors provide the illusion of knowledge.
(Adapted from https://www.sciencefocus.com/future-technology/can-we-build-brain-computer/ Published: 24th October, 2021, retrieved on February 9th, 2022)
“Whereas” in “A computer is built from static parts, whereas your brain constantly rewires itself as you age and learn” introduces a(n):
According to the text, before the pocket calculator, calculators were compact, but did not run on batteries
Considering the text above, judge the following item
The text would remain unchanged in terms of grammar and meaning if the excerpt “the world’s first commercially available general-purpose electronic computer” (in the end of the text) were replaced with the first commercially available general-purpose electronic computer in the world.
Brasil. Ministério da Educação. Base Nacional Comum Curricular. 2017. Adaptado.
According to the first paragraph and to your previous knowledge about the topic, mark the correct alternative.
In the BNCC document, some organizing axes for the English Language component are proposed. Mark the alternative where they’re presented accurately.
Fill in the blanks and mark the alternative with the correct sequence.
The approach that is used in learning a second language or foreign language and which emphasizes the improvement of communicative ability is called _____________. And the approach that is a way of analyzing and teaching language based on the idea that it is made up of lexical units rather than grammatical structures is called _____________.
TEXT 5 Answer the questions from 54 to 60 according to the text 5.
Ukraine-Russia War: Impact on Gas, Stocks, Inflation and the US Economy
Stock prices rebounded Friday, but the invasion of Ukraine could bring about many disruptions to the US economy.
Russia's invasion of Ukraine intensified on Saturday as troops continued to march on the capital Kyiv, which has instituted a citywide curfew from 5 p.m. local time Saturday until 8 a.m. Monday. US defense officials report that Russian troops launched more than 250 missiles at Ukraine Saturday but have been slow to advance on Kyiv, per ABC News. The attacks have virtually shut down shipping in Ukraine, a country with massive agricultural production, particularly corn and wheat. Russia and Ukraine are also major suppliers of metals and other industrial commodities, while Russia is one of the world's largest oil and gas producers. The invasion not only has ramifications for political stability in Europe and around the world, it's also straining a global economy already weakened by inflation, rising energy prices, the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic and a constrained supply chain. Here's how Russia's attacks on Ukraine, and the resulting economic sanctions from the West, are affecting Americans and people around the world.
Gas and oil prices on the rise
Russia's invasion of Ukraine has caused global energy prices to spike, with crude oil rising Thursday above $105 a barrel for the first time since 2014. The price cooled down a bit later on Thursday and Friday, and currently sits around $92.50 a barrel, according to OilPrice.com. Per AARP, the average price of gas in the US on Saturday was $3.60 a gallon, up slightly from $3.57 on Friday. Russia is one of the world's largest producers of crude oil and natural gas, providing roughly 40% of the European Union's gas. Sanctions from the West could affect access to that supply, especially with Germany putting a halt to the Nord Stream 2 pipeline that was intended to bring natural gas from Russia to the EU via the Baltic Sea.
Continued inflation
Russia is the largest exporter and second-largest producer of palladium, a metal used in mobile phones, automotive exhaust systems, fuel cells and even jewelry and dental fillings. Rising prices of palladium and other essential metals could lead to price increases for manufacturers and, ultimately, consumers. "We could see a new burst of inflation," the American Enterprise Institute's Christopher Miller told The New York Times.
[...]
More cyberattacks
The US Departments of Treasury and Homeland Security have both sounded the alarm over possible cyberattacks on US banks, hospitals, government offices and power grids in retaliation for sanctions against Moscow. On Thursday morning local time, websites for the Ukrainian cabinet and foreign affairs and education ministries were all experiencing disruptions. Herbert Lin, senior research scholar at Stanford's Center for International Security and Cooperation, told the Atlantic's Rachel Gutman that the Russians have elevated cyberattacks to an "art form." Though US banks have been heightening their defenses, Lin added, utilities in larger cities might be more at risk because they lack the extra funding for cybersecurity. Lin discouraged a panicked response by everyday Americans but said having extra cash and a go bag might not be a bad idea. He underscored that those items should always be in place regardless.
Rising food prices
Food prices have already gone up in the US and abroad, and the dent in wallets could get bigger with the Russian invasion. Ukraine is one of the top five corn exporters in the world, trading some 35.9 million metric tons in 2019 alone. An extended open conflict would likely see prices go up in Europe, not just for corn itself but also for related goods, including cooking oil, corn syrup and livestock feed. Soybean prices have also surged in the US in recent months, following an unusually poor crop in South America.
If US farmers have to make up the difference in both corn and soybeans, which compete for land, prices for both crops will likely rise in the United States, as will the cost of packaged goods made with them. Russia is the world's largest exporter of wheat, a crop that Ukraine exports as well, commodities economist Arlan Suderman told MarketWatch. Together the two nations account for nearly a third (29%) of the global wheat trade. "A prolonged military conflict that disrupts trade could make much of that wheat unavailable to the export market," Suderman said. The US doesn't rely on Russian wheat -- Egypt, Turkey and Bangladesh are the biggest importers -- but the trade disruption could affect global prices on flour, pasta, bread, pizza and other wheat products. On the Chicago Board of Trade, wheat futures jumped by as much as 5.7% on Thursday, to just over $9.34 a bushel, the highest price since 2012. Soybean prices also leaped to a nine-year high, while corn climbed to an eight-month peak. Rates on all three futures have started to contract, with overnight losses of between 2% and 3%.
Available at: https://www.cnet.com/how-to/ukraine-russia-war-impact-on-gas-stocks-inflation-and-the-us-economy/. Access on: Feb. 27th 2022 (adapted).
In “Though US banks have been heightening their defenses, Lin added, utilities in larger cities might be more at risk because they lack the extra funding for cybersecurity“:
In ‘Wipe the tears from your eyes”, the underlined word could be replaced, without prejudice to meaning, by:
According to the text, today, teachers teach because
TEXT 8
Answer the questions 71 and 72 according to the text 8.
The sentence “Don’t trash” is in:
All the words below could be considered as antonyms to the word “happiness”, except for:
Leia o texto para responder às questões de 39 a 43.
While plastic refuse littering beaches and oceans draws high-profile attention, the Food and Agriculture Organization’s (FAO) Assessment of agricultural plastics and their sustainability: a call for action suggests that the land we use to grow our food is contaminated with even larger quantities of plastic pollutants. “Soils are one of the main receptors of agricultural plastics and are known to contain larger quantities of microplastics than oceans”, FAO Deputy Director-General Maria Helena Semedo said in the report’s foreword.
According to data collated by FAO experts, agricultural value chains each year use 12.5 million tonnes of plastic products while another 37.3 million are used in food packaging. Crop production and livestock accounted for 10.2 million tonnes per year collectively, followed by fisheries and aquaculture with 2.1 million, and forestry with 0.2 million tonnes. Asia was estimated to be the largest user of plastics in agricultural production, accounting for almost half of global usage. Moreover, without viable alternatives, plastic demand in agriculture is only set to increase. As the demand for agricultural plastic continues surge, Ms. Semedo underscored the need to better monitor the quantities that “leak into the environment from agriculture”.
Since their widespread introduction in the 1950s, plastics have become ubiquitous. In agriculture, plastic products greatly help productivity, such as in covering soil to reduce weeds; nets to protect and boost plant growth, extend cropping seasons and increase yields; and tree guards, which protect young plants and trees from animals and help provide a growth-enhancing microclimate. However, of the estimated 6.3 billion tonnes of plastics produced before 2015, almost 80 per cent had never been properly disposed of. While the effects of large plastic items on marine fauna have been well documented, the impacts unleashed during their disintegration potentially affect entire ecosystems.
(https://news.un.org, 07.12.2021. Adaptado.)
An idea of contrast may be found in the following excerpt from the text:
