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Brain Function: Serial vs Parallel Processing
In days of yore, personal computers used serial processing that mimicked parallel processing. Unlike brain function, a serial computer functioned by executing one instruction at a time. But it did its work so fast that it usually fooled you into thinking it was doing several things at once.
That's not how modern multi-core computers work, and that’s not how your brain functions. Brain structures tend to evolve as specializations for various tasks, such as detecting danger, recognizing faces, protecting kin, mating, predicting the behaviour of others, and playing the harmonica for your horse.
Taken together, your brain’s constituent modules do not function like a serial computer. Nor like computer software. Nor like a mechanical clock. Rather, the modules connect up in vastly complex networks of neurons that communicate with each other and vie for your attention. Your brain is a massively parallel neural organ of computation. That is, the human brain functions by processing information and interpretations using many different modules simultaneously. That’s why you can drive your car, drink coffee, talk on your cell phone, and run over a pedestrian, all at the same time. Try programming a computer to do that!