Brain Drain

Brain is still number one mystery I and my brain are keen the most. The more trivial facts revealed, the more questions cropping out of my mind. Though machine has much more capacity it cannot repair its parts when it is damaged. While even the biggest computer has a capacity of around 10,000,000,000,000 bytes (10 to the power of 12), the human brain has a colossal 10 followed by 8,432 noughts, say the scientists who made the calculations in the journal Brain and Mind.


"The human brain contains about 50 billion to 200 billion neurons
(nobody knows how many for sure), each of which interfaces with 1,000
to 100,000 other neurons through 100 trillion (10^14) to 10
quadrillion (10^16) synaptic junctions. Each synapse possesses a
variable firing threshold which is reduced as the neuron is repeatedly
activated. If we assume that the firing threshold at each synapse can
assume 256 distinguishable levels, and if we suppose that there are
20,000 shared synapses per neuron (10,000 per neuron), then the total
information storage capacity of the synapses in the cortex would be of
the order of 500 to 1,000 terabytes. (Of course, if the brain's
storage of information takes place at a molecular level, then I would
be afraid to hazard a guess regarding how many bytes can be stored in
the brain. One estimate has placed it at about 3.6 X 10^19 bytes.)"

source : geocities



I must say that brain is not that easy to classify, there won't be any fixed figure of the maximum capacity of it. According to BBC Knowledge magazine, human brains work differently to computers. The memory record for the digits pi (π) is 84,341 decimal places - less than a hundred bytes on a computer. But anyone can recognise several thousand human faces from almost any angle. This would require storage of the order of hundreds or thousand gigabytes.

So today why don't fall in love with your quirky brain once more and be grateful for what you've been given? Consciousness, intelligence, values, all those little things do matter but we do give very little attention to them. Doesn't it seem unfair? But don't worry, God is there anytime you want to escape when you feel grateful of something. (Of course, ideally, you have to be grateful all the time) For atheists, I suggest you find out more about how this melting machine can be formed. Though I bet; there won't be any theory capable to explain what's happening. Happy braining!

pictures :ffffound