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Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!rutgers!psuvax1!psuvm!cunyvm!ndsuvm1!plains!person
From: person@plains.NoDak.edu (Brett G. Person)
Newsgroups: comp.ai,sci.bio,sci.psychology,alt.cyberpunk
Subject: Re: The Bandwidth of the Brain
Message-ID: <7331@plains.NoDak.edu>
Date: 29 Dec 90 07:58:42 GMT
References: <37034@cup.portal.com>
Organization: North Dakota State University, Fargo
Lines: 56

In article <37034@cup.portal.com> mmm@cup.portal.com (Mark Robert Thorson) writes:
>There is a common myth that the brain is capable of enormous computational
>bandwidth -- for example that the retina sends gigabauds worth of data to
>the brain.  I believe the computational bandwidth of the brain is quite low,
>low enough that we could simulate a brain on today's computers if only we knew
>how to do it.
[lots of stuff deleted] >
>
>I think it is obvious that the brain consists of many agencies which are
>"on call", but very few agencies which are simultaneously active.  Our
>remarkable ability to remember millions of minor facts, or recall some
>minor event which occurred many years ago (and which one hasn't thought
>about for many years) is no more remarkable than the ability of a phone book
>to record the names and addresses of millions of people or the ability of
>the disk drives at TRW to store millions of credit histories.
But... this isn't thought or consciesneess(sp) which is what you would have
to simulate to do a good job of making a "computer brain"
You worngly assume that what makes a brain a brain is merely its ability to
transmit data across neurons. This is completely wrong. The brain functions
on a level where the whole is greater than the sum ofthe parts.  Math,
reading,fact-retainning skills, and motor-skills work together to produce a
functioning brain.
>
>The evidence suggests that the parts of the brain that are active
>during any short span of time provide very low computational bandwidth;  their
>power comes from the fact that many such parts are available to be used.
>I don't use my math parts while making dinner, I don't use my cooking parts
>while writing this Usenet posting.  And I haven't used my Morse code parts or
>my German-language parts much at all in the last 20 years.

See above.  I think that the brain is a lot more complex than you are
stating.  Its the most complex organ in the human body. One might say that
the brain defines what we are.

As a quick example, I'm posting to usenet right now, I'm hungry, so I'm
thinking about what I can cook.  I'm using my math skills to figure our how
mych more I need to type so that news won't bitch at me about including more
text than I type in. I dont speak German, but I am using my language skills
to enter this text.













--
Brett G. Person
North Dakota State University
uunet!plains!person | person@plains.bitnet | person@plains.nodak.edu