Perception tasks involve relatively simple operations across very large amounts of data, which is very easy if you have a lot of parallel processors.

Abstract thought is mostly a serial task, applying very complex operations to a small amount of data. Many abstract tasks like evaluating logical expressions cannot be done in parallel - they are in the complexity class P-complete.

Your brain is mostly a parallel processor (80 billion neurons operating asynchronously), so logical reasoning is hard and perception is easy. Your CPU is mostly a serial processor, so logical reasoning is easy and perception is hard.

Yes, relatively simple. Wait, isn't that exactly what the article explained was completely wrong-headed?

The person you are responding to is instead comparing differences in biological systems and mechanical systems.

The brain itself is both a parallel system an a serially constrained system. It has distributed activity but it must resolve in a serial chain of action. We can't walk left and right at the same time. Any goals forces us to follow specific steps in specific order. This conflict between parallel processing and serial outputs is where the magic happens.

It doesn't really change the significance of the quote, but I can't help but point out that we didn't even have nerve cells more than 0.6 billion of years ago.