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Why Is the Human Brain So Efficient? (2018)

nautil.us

11–20 of 173 posts

Re: Why Is the Human Brain So Efficient? (2018)

#11

This article contains inaccuracies and says almost nothing novel for your average hacker new reader.

> Please don't post shallow dismissals, especially of other people's work. A good critical comment teaches us something.

https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html

What are the inaccuracies?

Re: Why Is the Human Brain So Efficient? (2018)

#12

World record tennis serve is 144 miles an hour and a human can't really move across a court and return a ball moving at this speed. If they're lucky they can reach it and react in time to hit it. I'm a bit confused by an article that claims tennis players can react to and return serves up to 160 miles an hour. I think evidence suggests that returning balls anywhere near this fast is dependent on analysing factors bef…

'Players have an intuition about where the ball is going to go without having to look at and analyse the flight of the ball.' This is pretty easily observable with baseball players as well. After playing thousands of games while standing in the same (relative) place on the field I/they can anticipate where the ball is going to go based on a variety of variables in real-time... instantly.

Almost all of the "amazing" things the brain does are basically continuously refined predictive branch execution.

Which is why practice is important. You're essentially strengthening certain neural pathways with continuous exposure to certain inputs.

But this strength also makes us susceptible to misdirection and slight of hand.

Re: Why Is the Human Brain So Efficient? (2018)

#13

This article contains inaccuracies and says almost nothing novel for your average hacker new reader.

Im with you on this. The one example of brain processing speed in the real world used with any numbers is just inaccurate (The speed of tennis balls and how able players are to react to them)

There is no analysis of the energy used by the brain to achieve anything or how much energy a computer uses for a similar task. So where is the discussion of efficiency?

Re: Why Is the Human Brain So Efficient? (2018)

#14
I feel uncomfortable at the ubiquitous, silent assumption that what is marketed as AI is a computer implementation of a brain.

I see how the term neuronal network reinforces this believe, but we (especially the researchers among us) should allow for the possibility that we are missing something.

Re: Why Is the Human Brain So Efficient? (2018)

#15
post #9

One kind of efficiency which hasn't been talked about is the energy loss of things like state switching and keeping the current state enabled. I think that brains build on much more efficient primitives than the silicon transistors computer chips use and thus can perform far more computations for far less energy than a desktop CPU. Another difference between CPUs and brains is that brains are much less general purpos…

Comparing Human Brain with a CPU is misconception. In the past when we didn't have digital computers we used to compare Brain with other machines. And now with a CPU. A Brain from a primitive neuron to higher level is not comparable to any machine at all including the CPU.

Re: Why Is the Human Brain So Efficient? (2018)

#16

World record tennis serve is 144 miles an hour and a human can't really move across a court and return a ball moving at this speed. If they're lucky they can reach it and react in time to hit it. I'm a bit confused by an article that claims tennis players can react to and return serves up to 160 miles an hour. I think evidence suggests that returning balls anywhere near this fast is dependent on analysing factors bef…

'Players have an intuition about where the ball is going to go without having to look at and analyse the flight of the ball.' This is pretty easily observable with baseball players as well. After playing thousands of games while standing in the same (relative) place on the field I/they can anticipate where the ball is going to go based on a variety of variables in real-time... instantly.

In the book “Thinking fast and Slow” the Baseball example is given for a learned intuition. The ball is too fast for batters to react so they learn to anticipate the trajectory of the ball from the way the pitcher throws. When they let professionals players play against a female softball player with lower throwing speed their intuition was off and they missed the ball more often than against a male professional player.

Re: Why Is the Human Brain So Efficient? (2018)

#17

This article contains inaccuracies and says almost nothing novel for your average hacker new reader.

> Please don't post shallow dismissals, especially of other people's work. A good critical comment teaches us something. https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html What are the inaccuracies?

The same accusation could be levied at the original artical.

Re: Why Is the Human Brain So Efficient? (2018)

#18

World record tennis serve is 144 miles an hour and a human can't really move across a court and return a ball moving at this speed. If they're lucky they can reach it and react in time to hit it. I'm a bit confused by an article that claims tennis players can react to and return serves up to 160 miles an hour. I think evidence suggests that returning balls anywhere near this fast is dependent on analysing factors bef…

Serves in tennis don't go directly down the line, they go cross court. Returning players will often be standing behind the baseline. Additionally balls start ~2.5-3m above the ground, bounce and then come up again. The total distance traveled is probably closer to ~27m.

The air resistance slowing the ball down is significant - combined with the energy the ball loses bouncing, the ball has lost more than half of its initial velocity by the time it gets to the returning player.

I found these speed guns stats on a tennis forum for the ball speed at different points:

Speed after being hit: 126mph

Speed before hitting court: 89mph

Speed after hitting court: 67mph

Speed at returner's baseline: 58mph

Even after doing the calculations correctly, there still isn't a lot of time for reactions, but it is more plausible than your initial analysis suggests. (Your units also seem off - should be seconds not milli-seconds).

Re: Why Is the Human Brain So Efficient? (2018)

#20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Please don't post shallow dismissals, especially of other people's work. A good critical comment teaches us something. https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html What are the inaccuracies?

The same accusation could be levied at the original artical.

Please make a specific and substantive point. Worthwhile discussions do not follow from vague and shallow dismissals.
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