Originally posted by: ActuaryTm
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Believe you may have missed several key elements of this thead. The query revolved around processing, and not encompassing the entire brain.
As far as my own comments, you may want to reexamine "capacity" and "approximation". I think most here are intelligent enough to realize anything more would be rather trivial.[/quote]
I was trying to state that the original poster's question is difficult to answer, since a computer handles and processes only a limited type of task while our brains process wildly differing types of data. The processing rate for each of those tasks is proportionate to its function and necessity. When we talk about "data rate" today, we are talking about data processed by a digital computer. Our brains are analog computers, so it would be tough to compare.
If I had to make some kind of comparison, I'd imagine that the portion of our brain that we use to do math is extremely slow compared to even the slowest computers. However the portion of our brain used for visual processing, touch, balance, and situation awareness is highly developed, since through evolution we had to navigate our surroundings. Even the most advanced computers isn't able to accurately pick familiar people out in a crowd if they're wearing different makeup, etc, but we're able to spot that kind of thing very quickly since our brains process that type of data quickly.
It's quite amazing how complex and application-specific that life is. Even a dust mite has capabilities that modern robotics scientists only dream of. Being able to analyse its environment, make a decision on how to act, and act on that decision is pretty impressive.