How much can a human mind store?

How much can a human mind store?

In its latest tactics guided in South Korea, the media driven by the state of North Korea has called South Korean President Lee Myung-bak "with human mile" and "2 MB of knowledge". How many human brain should be able to store megabytes?

Much more than two Most computational neuroscientists estimate human storage capacity somewhere between 10 terabytes and 100 terabytes, although the full spectrum of estimates ranges from 1 terabyte to 2.5 petabytes. (A terabyte is approximately 1,000 gigabytes or approximately 1 million megabytes; one petabyte is approximately 1000 terabytes.)

The mathematics behind these estimates is quite simple. There are about 100 billion neurons in the human brain. Each of these neurons seems capable of making about 1,000 connections, which represents approximately 1,000 potential synapses, which work largely on data storage. You can multiply these 100 billion neurons by about 1,000 connections, and you get information of 100 trillion data points or about 100 terabytes.

Neuroscientist acknowledges that these calculations are very simple. First of all, this math assumes that each synapse stores 1 byte of information, but this estimate may be too much or too little. Neuroscientists do not ensure how many synapses transmit only on one power versus many different powers. A syntax which transmits only on one force gives only one information - "On" or "off", 1 or 0. On the other hand, synch that can be broadcast on many different strands, several bits Can store. Secondly, different synapses are not completely free. Sometimes there may be many synonyms for expressing just one piece of information. Depending on how often this happens, estimates of 10 to 100 terabytes may be very large. Other problems include the fact that some synapses are used for processing, not storage (suggesting that estimates can be very high), and the fact is that there are support cells that can store information (Suggesting that estimates may be very low).

Even if we accept that the brain's storage capacity is between 10 and 100 terabytes, then estimating how much "free space" of that space is, it is very difficult - brain external hard drive In comparison, it is much more complicated. Not only do the parts seem to have been included in many different memories together, but this stored data often gets contaminated and even lost. One thing is certain: the belief that humans use only 10 percent of their brain, it is a myth - information can be stored in every part of the brain.

So how many brains does the brain run? It may be best to say that the brain is a very powerful machine that is made up of very slow processors. Each neuron has a "clock speed" on the sequence of kilowatts, which is one million times slower than Gigahertz. (The speed of the smartphone processor is approximately 1 GHz.) For this reason, computers are often very fast to complete specific tasks, even if they can not repeat all the different functions of the human brain.

While the futurists like Ray Kurzweil cite Moore's rule - the tendency of the computer to become powerful twice every two years - to estimate that within the next two decades we will be able to make the computer more powerful than the human brain, It is clear that such a computer can be marketed. The brain is remarkably energy-efficient, about 12 watts of electricity - which light up high-efficiency light bulbs. The computer needs so much energy to run as much as for the human brain - perhaps "Gigabit of Power, as much as currently consuming electricity by Washington, DC, all" - it can be impractical.