The metaphor of the mind as a computer is quite old; in fact, it comes form the 1950s, just when first computers were being created so it came naturally to think about the mind in terms of interconnected networks like computers work.

However, recent developments in neuroscience and in cognitive psychology offer a different picture of how the mind works. Whilst the metaphor of the mind is quite good one as the mind does have neworks of neurons and synapses, it is inaccurate because it relegates the body to machinery governed by the mind. The mind is not an autonomous entity, it works in conjunction with the body through the nervous system.

In fact, the mind works like a metaphor, as recently shown by Mark Turner in his book The literary Mind: the Origins of thought and Language, where he claims that humans make sense of the world through the mind's blending capacity. Conceptual belnding means that humans perceive the world in terms of patterns of similarity that are processed in the mind via conceptual blending, that is, unerstanding A in terms of B of which a new, different entity emerges yet preserving elements from both A and B.

This is why one of the most pervasive metaphors that helps humans understand the world is "that doctor is a butcher". Here, the mind is conceptualising the doctor (A) as a butcher (B) in order to provide a new understanding of the doctor that has elements of A and B: the doctor is not performing its role as he/she is expected to do. He/she treats patients like butchers treat meat.