Phrenology attempts to relate mental functions to bumps on the head.
Inside-out phrenology attempts to relate mental functions to physiological structures inside the head.
Both theories flourish in ignorance of recent major advances in our understanding of information processing virtual machines (more precisely NPDMs: 'Non-Physically-Describable Machines).
These may be fully implemented in physical machines.
I shall expand this note with reference to points made in various
other documents including
REALISATION AND VIRTUAL MACHINES
Virtual Machines in Philosophy, Engineering & Biology (at WPE 2008)
Computation and Embodiment: Three issues, not two
A Multi-picture Challenge for Theories of Vision - and some complex
networks of virtual machinery.
Why robot designers need to be philosophers -- and vice versa
Four Concepts of Freewill: Two of them incoherent
Maintained by
Aaron Sloman
School of Computer Science
The University of Birmingham