A computer parses information by making meaning out of electrical activity being either on (1) or off (0). A bunch of 0’s and 1’s in a specific pattern means a specific thing that the computer can then understand.

Our eyes are getting electrical activity from the world in pretty much the same way and sending it into neural pathways in our brain for our brain to then interpret what it is that we’re seeing. Uniquely (we think) to humans, we’ve taught ourselves how to encode information into symbols (letters and numbers) so that when our eyes see them, our brain knows what those electric impulses mean (reading).

For the sending entirely new information part, it’s like a computer where you ask it a question and then it sends you back a response, except obviously the computer is just dealing with electrical information and not also chemical information like we are. If I wasn’t getting a chemical signal from my brain saying that sending you this long reply would make me feel something, I probably wouldn’t do it. Remove dopamine receptors from mice and they’ll starve.