How fast do you think our brains process information at?

[ActuaryTm]

Originally posted by: 91TTZ
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.

The gap is bridging ever closer with nanotechnology and biotechnology. The two together are changing the landscape of science, and the dividing line between organic and inorganic is really beginning to blur.

I look forward each month to the nanotech and biotech sections of MIT Technology Review. Both fields fascinate me to no end.

 

[Eli]

Wouldn't it be measured in MHz?

 

[aplefka]

Originally posted by: Eli
Wouldn't it be measured in MHz?

No, teraflops.

 

[Eli]

Originally posted by: aplefka

Originally posted by: Eli
Wouldn't it be measured in MHz?

No, teraflops.

Ok, I see that. But even still, wouldn't MHz be more analogous to "brain processing power" than gb/s?

I guess that makes sense, though. You could theoretically have a 1MHz processor that is faster than a 100MHz processor, if its internal structures are so different... so cycles per second is rather irrelevant.

 

[imported_Phil]

Originally posted by: 91TTZ

Originally posted by: aplefka

That's pretty fast. Wasn't there a computer at Stanford that they got up to 61 or 71 teraflops recently? I remember reading about it in CPU in December.

Yeah, it used to be one of the fastest, but somebody brought it along to a fraternity party where it smoked some pot and began mingling with the wrong crowd. Now it just processes 2 teraflops per second working as a cash register in a surf shop in San Diego.

<spews Coke out of his nose> :laugh:

ATOT is on good form tonight 😉

 

[91TTZ]

Originally posted by: ActuaryTm
The gap is bridging ever closer with nanotechnology and biotechnology. The two together are changing the landscape of science, and the dividing line between organic and inorganic is really beginning to blur.

I look forward each month to the nanotech and biotech sections of MIT Technology Review. Both fields fascinate me to no end.

Yeah, it's very interesting what the future may bring in these fields. A single breakthough or new type of discovery can completely change the direction of progress. What's considered impossible can be made entirely possible by a change in a few details.

I remember I was interested in making a "walking-stick" type robot that uses a Basic Stamp. After looking into the details of making something useful, it becomes obvious just how amazingly complicated even an insect is. The amount of sensors that you'd need to let it navigate its surroundings, the light weight it would need to be, the power that you need to run it, the amount of processing power you need to run the code... it became apparent that I'd fall short of making anything useful. It gave me a newfound respect for bugs.

 

[kcthomas]

Originally posted by: aplefka

Originally posted by: SKORPI0
Computer To Be As Fast As Human Brain - Nov 2002

A human brain's probable processing power is around 100 teraflops, roughly 100 trillion calculations per second, according to Hans Morvec, principal research scientist at the Robotics Institute of Carnegie Mellon University.

That's pretty fast. Wasn't there a computer at Stanford that they got up to 61 or 71 teraflops recently? I remember reading about it in CPU in December.

damn, so are you telling me that soon computers will be able to process 100 trillion calculations faster than i can?

 

[Philippine Mango]

Originally posted by: ActuaryTm

Originally posted by: 91TTZ
No computer has ever showed emotion or independent thought, and making one of today's computers 1000x faster won't enable a computer to become self-aware.

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.

I love a discussion like this and entirely welcome to it...

 

[Scouzer]

2800 Baud

 

[Neurorelay]

Our brains work in a parallel processing mode....so the L2 cache is quite high while clock speed will vary based on cooling and wiring conditions 😛

 

[ActuaryTm]

Originally posted by: Neurorelay
Our brains work in a parallel processing mode....so the L2 cache is quite high while clock speed will vary based on cooling and wiring conditions

That would explain why brain functions seem to cease in hot-headed individuals.

 

[Philippine Mango]

Originally posted by: ActuaryTm

Originally posted by: Neurorelay
Our brains work in a parallel processing mode....so the L2 cache is quite high while clock speed will vary based on cooling and wiring conditions

That would explain why brain functions seem to cease in hot-headed individuals.

ROFL!

 

[MAME]

Originally posted by: 91TTZ

Originally posted by: MAME

Actually, I don't think the compression is lossy at all. I just think the method of retrieving the data is the bottleneck for memory recall.

Our memories have been proven to be lossy. That's just how our brains work. We don't store thought digitally, it's all analog and inherently lossy.

So the more we know, the more we overwrite pre-existing data? Does this mean I can overwrite really simple things like my name or how to add 1+1?

Just wondering.

 

[91TTZ]

Originally posted by: MAME

So the more we know, the more we overwrite pre-existing data? Does this mean I can overwrite really simple things like my name or how to add 1+1?

Just wondering.

Yeah, pretty much. Your brain is selective, it knows the priority of things. It knows what's important to remember, and what's not.

I bet you forgot the names of people that you were introduced to but didn't really care about, but you remember the name of the hot chick you were introduced to. You also probably forget the 343rd time you went food shopping, but you remember something that you thought was important.

 

[MAME]

Originally posted by: 91TTZ

Originally posted by: MAME

So the more we know, the more we overwrite pre-existing data? Does this mean I can overwrite really simple things like my name or how to add 1+1?

Just wondering.

Yeah, pretty much. Your brain is selective, it knows the priority of things. It knows what's important to remember, and what's not.

I bet you forgot the names of people that you were introduced to but didn't really care about, but you remember the name of the hot chick you were introduced to. You also probably forget the 343rd time you went food shopping, but you remember something that you thought was important.

But I think it's still in my memory and not lost. I just don't recall it because nothing out of the ordinary happened

 

[Eli]

Originally posted by: MAME

Originally posted by: 91TTZ

Originally posted by: MAME

So the more we know, the more we overwrite pre-existing data? Does this mean I can overwrite really simple things like my name or how to add 1+1?

Just wondering.

Yeah, pretty much. Your brain is selective, it knows the priority of things. It knows what's important to remember, and what's not.

I bet you forgot the names of people that you were introduced to but didn't really care about, but you remember the name of the hot chick you were introduced to. You also probably forget the 343rd time you went food shopping, but you remember something that you thought was important.

But I think it's still in my memory and not lost. I just don't recall it because nothing out of the ordinary happened

Hmm.. fascinating idea.. I bet it's at least partially true.

From the store example.. you may not remember the 343rd time you went grocery shopping when you just try and think about it randomly, but what if someone that was there reminds you of something specific that happened? The memories would come flooding back.....

It's a strange thing....

 

[PELarson]

Originally posted by: Philippine Mango
GB/s or TB/s? Like what we see, how fast would it be? Equivalent like in computer terms...

1 bit per hour or less.

 

[shilala]

Originally posted by: MAME

Originally posted by: Vaerilis
It doesn't work the same way our computers do. Some calculations are done instantly (quick understanding of 3D environments, complex movement processes), but some rather simple ones (like dividing numbers) take a lot of time to complete.
It can store petabytes of information, but the compression method is often very lossy (try recalling a movie).

Actually, I don't think the compression is lossy at all. I just think the method of retrieving the data is the bottleneck for memory recall.

They say that every experience you've ever had is backed up in the brain matter. That includes every sense you used (smells, sounds, etc.)
I can't access what I did 10 minutes ago.
I know that when I find something important it goes in the "shyt I want to remember" part of my brain and I can access it pretty easily.
Everything else just gets dumped in there somewhere and takes some shaking to get back out.
I'd like to find some good reading on how my melon works.

 

[MAME]

Originally posted by: Eli

Originally posted by: MAME

Originally posted by: 91TTZ

Originally posted by: MAME

So the more we know, the more we overwrite pre-existing data? Does this mean I can overwrite really simple things like my name or how to add 1+1?

Just wondering.

Yeah, pretty much. Your brain is selective, it knows the priority of things. It knows what's important to remember, and what's not.

I bet you forgot the names of people that you were introduced to but didn't really care about, but you remember the name of the hot chick you were introduced to. You also probably forget the 343rd time you went food shopping, but you remember something that you thought was important.

But I think it's still in my memory and not lost. I just don't recall it because nothing out of the ordinary happened

Hmm.. fascinating idea.. I bet it's at least partially true.

From the store example.. you may not remember the 343rd time you went grocery shopping when you just try and think about it randomly, but what if someone that was there reminds you of something specific that happened? The memories would come flooding back.....

It's a strange thing....

Exactly.

 

[MAME]

Originally posted by: shilala

Originally posted by: MAME

Originally posted by: Vaerilis
It doesn't work the same way our computers do. Some calculations are done instantly (quick understanding of 3D environments, complex movement processes), but some rather simple ones (like dividing numbers) take a lot of time to complete.
It can store petabytes of information, but the compression method is often very lossy (try recalling a movie).

Actually, I don't think the compression is lossy at all. I just think the method of retrieving the data is the bottleneck for memory recall.

They say that every experience you've ever had is backed up in the brain matter. That includes every sense you used (smells, sounds, etc.)
I can't access what I did 10 minutes ago.
I know that when I find something important it goes in the "shyt I want to remember" part of my brain and I can access it pretty easily.
Everything else just gets dumped in there somewhere and takes some shaking to get back out.
I'd like to find some good reading on how my melon works.

I've heard similar things.

Wouldn't it be weird to know that your brain would randomly delete existing information from itself? Therefore, something could happen to you and you quite literally could never, ever remember that it happened. It would be completly absent from your memory. That just doesn't sound reasonable

 

[MrDudeMan]

Mame, every memory you have makes a stronger "trace" between 2 neurons. the more times you think about it, the stronger that bond becomes. you dont overwrite things; you just make some memories stronger. thats why you dont forget your name or how to add 1+1 because you do those things daily. also, my mom has worked in the hospital for 30 years now and she has told me tons of stories about people with amnesia...a lot of them remember their spouses name, what town they grew up in, or anything that you would think about very often before your memory disorder, first.

 

[91TTZ]

Originally posted by: MAME

Wouldn't it be weird to know that your brain would randomly delete existing information from itself? Therefore, something could happen to you and you quite literally could never, ever remember that it happened. It would be completly absent from your memory. That just doesn't sound reasonable

I don't think they get randomly deleted, they just fade away. You might remember something that happened a long time ago, but the resolution has decreased. You won't remember the details that you could before, so your brain must compensate to give you a mental picture. They memory comes back to you, but the accuracy is distorted.

I remember hearing about something on a show about police investigations, and they said that they noticed that people's accounts of the same event differ. It's not that they're lying, but their brain "fills in the gaps" of the missing info. But from doing the studies they found that people really don't remember things with that great accuracy. They might remember the general idea of the person, but when asked about what color shirt they were wearing or what color eyes they had, the accounts differed.

http://my.webmd.com/content/article/100/105579.htm

And another informative article:

http://www.findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m0NAH/is_8_31/ai_80120500

 

[MAME]

Originally posted by: Bigsm00th
Mame, every memory you have makes a stronger "trace" between 2 neurons. the more times you think about it, the stronger that bond becomes. you dont overwrite things; you just make some memories stronger. thats why you dont forget your name or how to add 1+1 because you do those things daily. also, my mom has worked in the hospital for 30 years now and she has told me tons of stories about people with amnesia...a lot of them remember their spouses name, what town they grew up in, or anything that you would think about very often before your memory disorder, first.

Yes, I agree completely.

 

[MAME]

Originally posted by: 91TTZ

Originally posted by: MAME

Wouldn't it be weird to know that your brain would randomly delete existing information from itself? Therefore, something could happen to you and you quite literally could never, ever remember that it happened. It would be completly absent from your memory. That just doesn't sound reasonable

I don't think they get randomly deleted, they just fade away. You might remember something that happened a long time ago, but the resolution has decreased. You won't remember the details that you could before, so your brain must compensate to give you a mental picture. They memory comes back to you, but the accuracy is distorted.

I remember hearing about something on a show about police investigations, and they said that they noticed that people's accounts of the same event differ. It's not that they're lying, but their brain "fills in the gaps" of the missing info. But from doing the studies they found that people really don't remember things with that great accuracy. They might remember the general idea of the person, but when asked about what color shirt they were wearing or what color eyes they had, the accounts differed.

http://my.webmd.com/content/article/100/105579.htm

And another informative article:

http://www.findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m0NAH/is_8_31/ai_80120500

Naturally you cannot remember everything perfectly, but I do believe the information is in your brain somewhere. The knowledge is hard to extract but still remains.