Human brain mechanism is a mystery
Why Is the Human Brain So Efficient? Massive Parallelism
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Re: Why Is the Human Brain So Efficient? Massive Parallelism
#12The brain definitely has an edge on compute power. The computer has an edge on storage power. I would bet the brain doesn’t store more than a Terabyte of information. We just need more cores without spiking energy usage.
The human brain has over 100 trillion synapses, which is somewhat analogous to storage or memory (in both senses). Some estimates for the storage capacity of the brain are as low as a terabyte. Others are an order of magnitude or two higher.
Being electrochemical, the brain is “slow” compared to a computer (around 10hz). But it’s massively parallel and an interesting combination of digital and analogue.
Re: Why Is the Human Brain So Efficient? Massive Parallelism
#13The brain definitely has an edge on compute power. The computer has an edge on storage power. I would bet the brain doesn’t store more than a Terabyte of information. We just need more cores without spiking energy usage.
Erm, and we just need the software to run it all :)
Re: Why Is the Human Brain So Efficient? Massive Parallelism
#14Like a quantum computer, computing thousand calculations at once and the true answer is what remains? I guess there's a ... parallel there. And I know some people don't like this diductic reduction, analogy, metaphor, callitwhatyouwant. I'd welcome corrections.
The problem with trying to correct this is that it's not wrong, because it doesn't really state a hypothesis.
Are you trying to say that brains are quantum computing devices? Maybe, but we don't have any particular evidence for that, so it's on a par with saying "The Flying Spaghetti Monster has a tiny noodly appendage that reaches through hyperspace into each neuron, and that's how we think."
We can observe brains in a lot of different ways - active electromagnetics, chemical sampling, microscopy, MRI... and we can say that injuring certain areas of the brain will impede certain functions. We know that excesses or droughts of some chemicals are associated with emotions, depression, and some diseases.
But we don't have a good model for how brains think, and among the good models we don't have, quantum computing is one of them.
Re: Why Is the Human Brain So Efficient? Massive Parallelism
#15"a professional tennis player can follow the trajectory of a tennis ball after it is served at a speed as high as 160 miles per hour" This is false or at least highly misleading. A reader might imagine that the player's eyes track the ball in flight. This is not what happens. A pro player reads the position of the serve and begins moving before the ball is hit. The predictive power of the brain is much more important…
Agree. As someone who was playing table tennis for a bit time, where basically you can't see the ball due speed, prediction training is essential and long term process. At some point you get so versed you know where the ball will be just by looking at opponent elbow or arm.
Re: Why Is the Human Brain So Efficient? Massive Parallelism
#16"a professional tennis player can follow the trajectory of a tennis ball after it is served at a speed as high as 160 miles per hour" This is false or at least highly misleading. A reader might imagine that the player's eyes track the ball in flight. This is not what happens. A pro player reads the position of the serve and begins moving before the ball is hit. The predictive power of the brain is much more important…
The way other articles describe it, a pro player is not really aware of the incoming ball, lower level non-conscious (reflex) systems track the environment and react before you are aware of it, just like when a regular person dodges a sudden obstacle coming at them and only a bit later they realize what's going on.
Re: Why Is the Human Brain So Efficient? Massive Parallelism
#17I feel like there must be some way to 'clean' our brains. As we get older it must accumulate 'gunk' that slow it down or weaken connections.
I guess sleep is the closest thing we have but to me that's like saying drink water to fix tooth decay.
Re: Why Is the Human Brain So Efficient? Massive Parallelism
#18I wonder how this would compare against quantum computing, as that allows maximum parallelism too if in correct.
Re: Why Is the Human Brain So Efficient? Massive Parallelism
#19The brain definitely has an edge on compute power. The computer has an edge on storage power. I would bet the brain doesn’t store more than a Terabyte of information. We just need more cores without spiking energy usage.
The computer also has an edge on precision and determinism.
Re: Why Is the Human Brain So Efficient? Massive Parallelism
#20How many milliseconds does it take for one layer of neurons to adjust its output? Let's call this number X. Can we conclude that if a task takes a human Y milliseconds, then a neural network with Y/X layers is sufficient for that task?
A biological neuron is many magnitudes more complex than a typical neural network node.