The Amazing Complexity of the Human Brain

http://www.technologyreview.com/blog/editors/26044/
from Elemental Forums

http://www.technologyreview.com/blog/editors/26044/

"A single human brain has more switches than all the computers and routers and Internet connections on Earth."

One of the most startling discoveries in neuroscience this year. A real kick in the nuts for all the cognitive scientists that had hoped to see true AI in thier lifetimes with the invention of memristor technology.

I hadn't seen this covered in the popular press, so I thought I'd share. :D

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32,711 views 5 replies
Reply #1 from Elemental Forums Top

The human brain is the inhibitor of thought. Get rid of all that mess of switches and spaghetti network synapses, and you'd be able to think far more clearly. The impulse that traverses the brain cells is the real genius. That convoluted mash of pathways is slowing the whole process down.

Reply #2 from Elemental Forums Top

You know, I think I actually heard that before, in a lecture in grad school...

 

From Professor...

Terry Schaivo.

Lol, not nice, I know.

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Reply #3 from Elemental Forums Top

I think all those "switches" and spaghetti stuff is the main substance behind decision making and thought. The brain wouldn't be much good without it. What's slowing everything down is stupid people who don't want to learn anything, get educated, or be challenged.

Good article!

Reply #4 from Elemental Forums Top

Yeah, JD, I agree- I think Istari was being facetious. For me, it's interesting because before I read it, I had considered the brain to be a processor made of neurons. If each neuron has more power than the standard microprocessor, though, it's essentialy a whole new game. A human brain modelled with memristors would be roughly the size of Jupiter! (note, I have not done the math on this.)

Reply #5 from Elemental Forums Top

Quoting James009D, reply 3
I think all those "switches" and spaghetti stuff is the main substance behind decision making and thought. The brain wouldn't be much good without it. What's slowing everything down is stupid people who don't want to learn anything, get educated, or be challenged.

Good article!
End of James009D's quote

The brain is the inhibitor of thought in the same way that the body is the inhibitor of motion. Light and energy transcend human limitations, and as the driving force behind any human activity, they take on certain limitations when confined to the human vessel.

 

Once that which is the living being is removed, the body is a lifeless lump of clay. What then is tissue and organic mass but the vehicle that requires the power to function, without which that power is unburdened.

 

The brain is indeed a wonderous thing. It facilitates thought for the human body, by inhibiting the very thing that drives it.