So now and then I use the word "process", as in, say, It took him a day or two to process the event. And then I say, "No, that sounds computeresque; I need something else." But is it? I don't think so? People were processing fish and corn and wine grapes and iron ore and such, long before computers, right? The metaphor of taking raw materials and converting it to a finished product, and the metaphor of doing so with facts and one's brain, isn't modern, is it? Or is it?
I didn't take it as a technical or mechanical or computer term until you lead me to think about it in that way. I use it in everyday language: ". . . well that was a new development. I'm not sure how to process this."
You're fine. The brain "processes" information. I'm no neurologist but that's the term I always hear them use.
I agree that "process" is fine, but if you don't like it, often people use another word which is from another realm but is understood in the context: "digest". "It took him a day or two to digest the information" is understood that he was not literally putting it through a biological digestion process (unless he ate a book ), but processing it.
Of itself it is passable, but if you wrote 'thinking outside the box, he processed the low hanging fruit opportunities down the pipe,' you might be executed in some utopia to come, and soon definitely. The future where a crop of IBM executives hang by shirt ties from sturdy branches, and are harvested at the hands of a delicate lady wearing a rustic pinny, and also clogs.
I do as well - I wouldn't be askance at all in the contexts above. I've noticed a new word use recently come into play that's taking me some time to get used to: unpack. I've seen it used to describe the process of uncovering unconscious biases, examining where they stem from and how they affect social interactions on both small and large scale.
There's always 'digest.' Organic processing. Analyse? Consider? Draw conclusions? Absorb? However, there is no need to just substitute a word either. You can make it clearer what the person is actually doing as they deal with the event or circumstance. Often this takes several steps. I think you may be sensing this use of 'process' is almost slangily new. Like input and throughput, and stuff like that. I don't remember my parents talking about 'processing' an occurence in this way. They would probably have said 'think about,' or 'come to terms with,' or something along these lines. Process seems kind of newspeaky new-age-y, corporate-speak, doesn't it? I imagine Apple employees 'process' quite a lot. Nothing wrong with it, and folks today certainly realise what it means, in context. But perhaps it doesn't give the right literary feel, in some instances.
Thanks! (I just realized that I posted this, got several helpful answers, and didn't come back.) My net conclusion from the answers is that "process" is not what I want to use in the context where I'm using it--it has acquired too much modern computer flavor, even if its origin isn't about computers.