This doesn't seem very paradoxical to me, and at a layman's level I think one good parallel between a human's "operation" and a computer's operation with regard to this question is as follows . . .
Even as a non-programmer (I am a programmer) I might relate well to an ordinary desktop/laptop running my Excel spreadsheets. I can create a spreadsheet, enter data in cells, enter formulae, format the content beautifully, specify and view charts of the data I'm entering and information I'm computing. I might be able to respect and appreciate the beauty and complexity of how the spreadsheet program was implemented in an abstract sense. I might describe to another person my ideas about how the spreadsheet program was created, its major features and concerns, and its obvious complexity. What I'd be missing though, likely, is (a) the complex interface between what I see and what supports that experience behind the scenes; and (b) the 50+ years of computing technology under the hood that has evolved to support my narrow and visible relations with my Excel spreadsheets.
From the user's view, the Excel spreadsheets, Windows Explorer, the Start button, etc., are the aspects of the computer analogous to a human's thought processes. They're visible and explainable. The user might have some vague notion that files are stored on disk, that there's something called a CPU, that does the computer thing, etc. The user has no clue, though, that the Excel spreadsheet program itself contains but a very small portion of the effort to make its visible manifestations happen. There's an enter support system from file system, CPU, memory, buses all over the place, GPU, video display, chips, specialized interfaces to I/O and other subsystems, ASIC's, semiconductor physics, electricity, magnetism, etc. The hardware, firmware, and software for the latter have had 50 years to evolve and mature. To a normal user these aspects aren't understandable. They understand Excel.
And so for us, we can understand and describe human thought and cognition in an abstract way. But most thought is below the level we're conscious of, and supporting that thought is an entire interface with the physical elements of the body, its nervous system and autonomous function, and the interface of these with the brain.
Even as a non-programmer (I am a programmer) I might relate well to an ordinary desktop/laptop running my Excel spreadsheets. I can create a spreadsheet, enter data in cells, enter formulae, format the content beautifully, specify and view charts of the data I'm entering and information I'm computing. I might be able to respect and appreciate the beauty and complexity of how the spreadsheet program was implemented in an abstract sense. I might describe to another person my ideas about how the spreadsheet program was created, its major features and concerns, and its obvious complexity. What I'd be missing though, likely, is (a) the complex interface between what I see and what supports that experience behind the scenes; and (b) the 50+ years of computing technology under the hood that has evolved to support my narrow and visible relations with my Excel spreadsheets.
From the user's view, the Excel spreadsheets, Windows Explorer, the Start button, etc., are the aspects of the computer analogous to a human's thought processes. They're visible and explainable. The user might have some vague notion that files are stored on disk, that there's something called a CPU, that does the computer thing, etc. The user has no clue, though, that the Excel spreadsheet program itself contains but a very small portion of the effort to make its visible manifestations happen. There's an enter support system from file system, CPU, memory, buses all over the place, GPU, video display, chips, specialized interfaces to I/O and other subsystems, ASIC's, semiconductor physics, electricity, magnetism, etc. The hardware, firmware, and software for the latter have had 50 years to evolve and mature. To a normal user these aspects aren't understandable. They understand Excel.
And so for us, we can understand and describe human thought and cognition in an abstract way. But most thought is below the level we're conscious of, and supporting that thought is an entire interface with the physical elements of the body, its nervous system and autonomous function, and the interface of these with the brain.