Brains and computers

In a paper by Kozma, I found an interesting citation from The Computer and the Brain, the book that John Von Neumann was writing when he died:

It is only proper to realize that language is largely a historical accident. The basic human languages are traditionally transmitted to us in various forms, but their very multiplicity proves that there is nothing absolute and necessary about them. Just as languages like Greek or Sanskrit are historical facts and not absolute logical necessities, it is only reasonable to assume that logic and mathematics are similarly historical, accidental forms of expression. They may have essential variants, i.e., they may exist in other forms than the ones to which we are accustomed. Indeed, the nature of the central nervous system and of the message systems that it transmits indicate positively that this is so.

(Von Neumann, 1958)

So if this is the case, and I completely agree, maybe using a "traditional" computing architecture to create a brain is not such a good idea; well, that's exactly what we've been doing all along ...