The human brain can perform up to 10,000 trillion operations per second, at least 100 times as many as some of the world’s fastest supercomputers.
4 comments:
Anonymous
said...
Sorry, I had to comment on this -- that's not entirely accurate.... it really depends on what the brain is doing. Our brain is much faster than computers for doing things like visual recognition. However, for something like numeric computation, our brain is a lot slower than computer.
I understand what you're getting at, David, which is why I didn't specify the type of operations involved. Please don't discount the many man vs. machine competitions over the years, however, in which human minds have consistently proven themselves superior to those of computers. The only such competition that was lost happened to be one in which the machine (Deep Blue) was immediately dismantled, leaving doubt as to whether human interference was involved in the computer's win. Granted, Deep Junior earned a draw against the same human opponent while operating at much lower speeds than those of Deep Blue. But Deep Junior's advantage came from imaginative play previously thought impossible for a computer (not computational speed). So what is my point? That the fact still stands. If we compare the human brain to a computer, using data transmission alone (without regard for quality, accuracy or specific task), the human brain wins.
So what is my point? That the fact still stands. If we compare the human brain to a computer, using data transmission alone (without regard for quality, accuracy or specific task), the human brain wins.
That is also suprising to me -- I was always taught in biology and such that neurons, because they're chemical impulses instead of electrical impulses (ie, they used charged ions, I think potassium and sodium, but I might be wrong on the specifics; whereas computers use metal wires and electron transmission). So it is surprising to me, based on that, that the human brain would have a higher data transimssion rate.
The one thing I can think of is that our brains are multi-threaded -- they can do a lot of computations at once, whereas in general, a computer can do one computation at a time. And there's lots of little tricks and stuff that have been developed over the years to make it seem like the computer's doing lots of stuff at once, but it's really only doing one thing at a time. That might be the reason.
Do you have any information/other reading on the subject?
You've identified the issue beautifully. The human brain is not as fast at transmitting single pieces of data, but it can perform billions of transmissions simultaneously and trillions of transmissions per second. Here's an excerpt from nobelprize.org on nerve signaling:
"The human brain is packed with almost 100 billion neurons, which rely on a complex communication structure within the brain itself. Not all nervous communications are involved in sending or receiving messages between the body and the brain. In fact, a lot of communications between nerve cells take place in the brain itself.
Mostly in the communication between brain neurons, signal transmission speed is not crucial. The synaptic transmission in the brain is relatively slow, and is consequently called "slow synaptic transmission." What is lost in speed is however gained in complexity. The synapses between brain neurons are adapted to offer an almost infinite variation of neurotransmitters and levels at any given moment. This enables complex patterns to be established."
You can find more at http://nobelprize.org/medicine/educational/synapse/intro.html
4 comments:
Sorry, I had to comment on this -- that's not entirely accurate.... it really depends on what the brain is doing. Our brain is much faster than computers for doing things like visual recognition. However, for something like numeric computation, our brain is a lot slower than computer.
Just thought I'd point that out ;)
David
I understand what you're getting at, David, which is why I didn't specify the type of operations involved. Please don't discount the many man vs. machine competitions over the years, however, in which human minds have consistently proven themselves superior to those of computers. The only such competition that was lost happened to be one in which the machine (Deep Blue) was immediately dismantled, leaving doubt as to whether human interference was involved in the computer's win. Granted, Deep Junior earned a draw against the same human opponent while operating at much lower speeds than those of Deep Blue. But Deep Junior's advantage came from imaginative play previously thought impossible for a computer (not computational speed). So what is my point? That the fact still stands. If we compare the human brain to a computer, using data transmission alone (without regard for quality, accuracy or specific task), the human brain wins.
So what is my point? That the fact still stands. If we compare the human brain to a computer, using data transmission alone (without regard for quality, accuracy or specific task), the human brain wins.
That is also suprising to me -- I was always taught in biology and such that neurons, because they're chemical impulses instead of electrical impulses (ie, they used charged ions, I think potassium and sodium, but I might be wrong on the specifics; whereas computers use metal wires and electron transmission). So it is surprising to me, based on that, that the human brain would have a higher data transimssion rate.
The one thing I can think of is that our brains are multi-threaded -- they can do a lot of computations at once, whereas in general, a computer can do one computation at a time. And there's lots of little tricks and stuff that have been developed over the years to make it seem like the computer's doing lots of stuff at once, but it's really only doing one thing at a time. That might be the reason.
Do you have any information/other reading on the subject?
David
You've identified the issue beautifully. The human brain is not as fast at transmitting single pieces of data, but it can perform billions of transmissions simultaneously and trillions of transmissions per second. Here's an excerpt from nobelprize.org on nerve signaling:
"The human brain is packed with almost 100 billion neurons, which rely on a complex communication structure within the brain itself. Not all nervous communications are involved in sending or receiving messages between the body and the brain. In fact, a lot of communications between nerve cells take place in the brain itself.
Mostly in the communication between brain neurons, signal transmission speed is not crucial. The synaptic transmission in the brain is relatively slow, and is consequently called "slow synaptic transmission." What is lost in speed is however gained in complexity. The synapses between brain neurons are adapted to offer an almost infinite variation of neurotransmitters and levels at any given moment. This enables complex patterns to be established."
You can find more at http://nobelprize.org/medicine/educational/synapse/intro.html
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