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From: turner@webb.psych.ufl.edu (Carl Turner)
Newsgroups: comp.ai
Subject: Re: How much info can the brain hold?
Message-ID: <25658@uflorida.cis.ufl.EDU>
Date: 30 Nov 90 00:30:24 GMT
References: <11941@hubcap.clemson.edu>
Sender: news@uflorida.cis.ufl.EDU
Reply-To: turner@webb.psych.ufl.edu (Carl Turner)
Organization: University of Florida Psychology Department
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In article <11941@hubcap.clemson.edu> svissag@hubcap.clemson.edu (Steve L Vissage II) writes:
>I've heard estimates of how many neurons the human brain contains, somewhere 
>in the trillions, I believe.  Has there ever been a reliable estimate of
>how much information, in bits or other computer-relevant units, can be
>contained in that structure?
> 
>Steve L Vissage II

The estimates of the number of neurons in the brain range from 30 billion
to 100 billion.

Most information-processing theories of memory assume that long-term
memory (LTM) is essentially unlimited.  Failure to remember are due to
either 1) a failure to encode the information (move it from STM to LTM)
or 2) a failure to retrieve the info (it's there but you just can't get
it out).  Storage capacity is not assumed to be the problem; I say 
"assumed" because, as you have probably already guessed, this is probably
impossible to prove.

The essential works on memory are by Shiffrin, Atkinson, and Tulving.
Check them out.

ObA.I.

An attempt to relate the question and follow-up article to a significant
problem in artificial intelligence: if human memory is "essentially
unlimited," what import does this have for a full (machine) working model
of human intelligence?  Let me state this another way; given a massively
parallel piece of computer hardware, is it possible to find and implement
algorithms that allow one to consider the storage there "essential 
unlimited?"

Carl Turner
turner@webb.psych.ufl.edu