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What the brain's wiring looks like

bbc.com

11–20 of 121 posts

Re: What the brain's wiring looks like

#11

Just wondering... How complicated does a brain have to become in order to understand itself? Could a brain exist that is so complicated that it could not understand itself, or does a brain's understanding always scale up with its complexity?

Questions such as these are tackled in the excellent book Infinity and the Mind [0].

[0] https://www.amazon.com/Infinity-Mind-Philosophy-Infinite-Pri...

Re: What the brain's wiring looks like

#12
post #7

Just wondering... How complicated does a brain have to become in order to understand itself? Could a brain exist that is so complicated that it could not understand itself, or does a brain's understanding always scale up with its complexity?

You should first define what actually means "understanding the brain" before you try to answer this question. Does "understanding of the brain" mean, that we can construct or simulate a brain? An artificial brain, which reproduce our intelligence and consciousness? There is no reason to believe, that we can't do this. A brain is part of our world, governed by physics. However, we will never be able to understand the…

> However, we will never be able to understand the thought process down to each individual activation of the neuron.

Is that true in general, or are you specifically talking about human brains?

Re: What the brain's wiring looks like

#14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That very much depends on whether the complexity increases intelligence/comprehension or whether it is merely increased complexity.

Right.. There are brains larger than ours with less intelligence.

Such as? We humans do colossally stupid things on a daily basis with our so-called intelligence.

Re: What the brain's wiring looks like

#15
post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You should first define what actually means "understanding the brain" before you try to answer this question. Does "understanding of the brain" mean, that we can construct or simulate a brain? An artificial brain, which reproduce our intelligence and consciousness? There is no reason to believe, that we can't do this. A brain is part of our world, governed by physics. However, we will never be able to understand the…

> However, we will never be able to understand the thought process down to each individual activation of the neuron. Is that true in general, or are you specifically talking about human brains?

I mean a complex thought process. Like how to come from an activated retina cell to a movement to a part of a body.

At time index 586578382342us the cell no 15547349 got activated which led to a slightly improved electric charge around the axon of neuron no 68342. The connection strength, as you remember, from time index 3870127106 is now 1% higher ..... one billion pages later ..... but the atom here is slightly misaligned to its counterpart, ...... one billion pages later .... noise coming from dentride no 496839 .... one billion pages later .... let to a decreased potential at muscle cell no 9678402 and hence a millimeter shift of the finger tip no 3. ......

Do you want to here the exciting story about my semimenbranous muscle at time index 4386702121us :)

Do we understand the brain when we have this information? What I want to say is, that our brain cannot store so much information and handle it. Hence, we cannot "understand" the brain on this level. ("The person did this, because .... ")

Re: What the brain's wiring looks like

#16

Where is the neuron cell body? Would they be at the outside where the fibers (axons?) seem to terminate? I wouldn't have guessed that it would look so linear. I was expecting a much more tangled appearance.

The tangled part is actually mostly 2mm thickness on the surface[0]. That's why the folds matter so much:

[0] https://28oa9i1t08037ue3m1l0i861-wpengine.netdna-ssl.com/wp-...

Check out this article for a pretty cool overview of the brain: https://waitbutwhy.com/2017/04/neuralink.html

Re: What the brain's wiring looks like

#17
Just to clarify, these MRI images looks at white matter, which are mostly bundles of long-range myelinated axons. This is more likely a map of major highways in the brain (Or really the map of bundles of major highways in the brain, as MRI only has millimeter resolution).

The connectome at the cellular level is massive. I think part of the mouse visual cortical connectome has been mapped out, and the data is on the order of tens of terabytes.

Re: What the brain's wiring looks like

#18
post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> However, we will never be able to understand the thought process down to each individual activation of the neuron. Is that true in general, or are you specifically talking about human brains?

I mean a complex thought process. Like how to come from an activated retina cell to a movement to a part of a body. At time index 586578382342us the cell no 15547349 got activated which led to a slightly improved electric charge around the axon of neuron no 68342. The connection strength, as you remember, from time index 3870127106 is now 1% higher ..... one billion pages later ..... but the atom here is slightly mis…

Unless you can build a time machine. Sci-fi is foiled again!

Re: What the brain's wiring looks like

#19
post #5

Just wondering... How complicated does a brain have to become in order to understand itself? Could a brain exist that is so complicated that it could not understand itself, or does a brain's understanding always scale up with its complexity?

Technically, considering a long enough timescale, a brain is the Universe trying to understand itself.

Doesn't "try" imply intending? But the universe isn't a someone who can intend to do something.

Your statement sounds like mysticism, trying to soften the emotional coldness of the materialist view of the universe.

Re: What the brain's wiring looks like

#20
post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Technically, considering a long enough timescale, a brain is the Universe trying to understand itself.

Doesn't "try" imply intending? But the universe isn't a someone who can intend to do something. Your statement sounds like mysticism, trying to soften the emotional coldness of the materialist view of the universe.

The space dust that coalesced into our solar system and planet eventually (picture it in fast-forward) became us and we "try" to understand stuff, no?
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