Human Brain Vs. Computers

[dmw16]

How do you think the human brain compares to a computer? Has anyone ever quantified the human brain? That is to say - the brian can carry out X number of operations per second or something? Anyone?

Also, I really find this interesting and would like to start doing research and reading on this topic. Does anyone know of any good books on this subject?
thanks,
-doug

 

[Sophia]

How The Mind Works by Steven Pinker might be a good start. It may be not precisely what you're looking for, but an interesting read nonetheless.

 

[GoldenBear]

My brian is smrter than anie computr.

 

[WasabiCat]

i remember one of my CS professors (AI prof) once said

the number of different ways that the neurons in the brain can be connected is greater than the number of atoms in the universe

 

[TripleJ]

Here's an interesting one. We don't know what headaches actually are. Does that make our brains really complex and smart or does that make us dumb because we haven't figured it out?

 

[Homer_Simpson]

Here's an interesting one. We don't know what headaches actually are. Does that make our brains really complex and smart or does that make us dumb because we haven't figured it out?

That's like sayin is the cup half full or half empty.

An optimistic person would say really complex (half full) where as the pessimistic person would say really dumb (half empty)

Homer

 

[SuperTool]

The brain is so much better then any computer.
It's an awesome asynchronous computer, and the OS (Life 1.0) keeps running as this computer is being built, and as it starts to fall deteriorate later in life. Truly hot-swappable and redundand on cellular level. There is really no comparison.
I think in the future, if someone can figure out how to tap into the human brain, and interface it with an electonic computer, it would be pretty cool. Imagine having a wireless connection in your head. Wow. I can't even think about all the possibilities. You could really do all that stuff in the Matrix.

 

[silent tone]

The human brain has about 100 billion neurons, each with an average of 1,000 connections, totalling 100 trillion connections per person. As mentioned before this offers massive parallelism. But neurons are relatively slow, only about 200 operations per sec. Extrapolating current and past technological progress, around 2020 we can buy cheap computers with this processing capacity, along with about 100petabytes of memory. The best part is that silicon parts can operate much faster than our biological counterparts.

This comes from Kurzweil's 'Age of Spiritual Machines', an excellent read. Another figure quoted was that by the end of this century, all the computing power of the human population will cost less than a penny.

 

[IBhacknU]

<< Another figure quoted was that by the end of this century, all the computing power of the human population will cost less than a penny. >>

Is that in today's pennies or what a penny's worth at the end of the century?

 

[colossus]

Having gotten my ass kicked in my med school's neuroanatomy class, I can tell you the human brain is far more complex and &quot;quicker&quot; than any computer ever created, and probably will be so for at least 50 years. Remember, all the computer technology that comes out right now comes from the human brain (not alien technology like some believe - I hope). The day computers can self improve their software and hardware is the day humans become extinct!

4 billion years of evolution/God's creation or 30 years of Intel and Microsoft.

T2/Matrix waiting to happen? Perhaps. I'm dying to see AI later this month

 

[rc5]

Imagine the size of a typical Microsoft OS at the end of this century!

 

[ManSnake]

My brian is smrter than anie computr.

ROFL

 

[BowDown]

The only thing that we have over computers is the ability to obsorb/apply/&amp; reason...

Hmm... After that what is there?