Is The Brain an Analog Computer? Consciousness as Dynamic Brainwave Organization

For decades, neuroscience treated the brain like a digital machine, storing information in synaptic connections and sustaining activity like a switch flipped on. But what if that model is incomplete?

In this conversation, I sit down with Earl Miller, MIT professor and head of the Miller Lab, to explore a growing shift in cognitive neuroscience: the brain may compute using dynamic electrical waves.

We discuss how oscillations coordinate millions of neurons, how waves interact with spikes in a two-way system, why large-scale brain organization may depend on rhythmic patterns, and what this means for artificial intelligence.

If cognition isn’t just stored in connections, but emerges from real-time analog wave computation, how should we rethink intelligence?