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rudi_in · May 14, 2006, 12:30 PM

Just interested in some thoughts here.

I am sure that most of us are aware of the way we refer to the amount of information that a hard drive can store.

Bytes

Of course, it is the Gigabyte we use most frequently now days. It is not uncommon to find a computer that has a capacity of 200 to 300 Gigabytes.

This is a lot of information.

Our brains, however, can also hold a lot of information. I have always wondered that if we used the same terminology to talk about brain information as we do hard drives, How many Gigabytes, Terabytes, or whatever could the brain hold?

Curlyben · May 14, 2006, 01:15 PM

Current estimates of brain capacity range from 1 to 1000 terabytes!

Here's some references that may help
brain
Technology of Storage

RickJ · May 14, 2006, 01:23 PM

Very interesting question, Rudi. It's been a long time since I heard this subject brought up.

I found a lot of websites talking about how brains and computers are so different that you can't accurately put "bytes" to the amount of memory brains have... but still some try.

I found tons of old articles from '88 citing 20 meg! Obviously that's relative to what they thought was huge back then.

Now they're talking somewhere between a few Terrabytes and 3E20 bytes.

Here's a decently entertaining discussion of it:
sciforums.com - Brain storage equivalent?

Tommyp!972 · May 14, 2006, 08:26 PM

Cannot wait till they discover how the brain retains knowledge... then we are going to be talking about unimaginable storage and speed... not going to happen in my lifetime

RickJ · May 15, 2006, 02:36 AM

Here was Carl Sagan's take on it from back in 1979; Broca's Brain:

"How much can the brain know? There are perhaps 1011 neurons in the brain, the circuit elements and switches that are responsible in their electrical and chemical activity for the functioning of our minds. A typical brain neuron has perhaps a thousand little wires, called dendrites, which connect it with its fellows. If, as seems likely, every bit of information in the brain corresponds to one of these connections, the total number of things knowable by the brain is no more than 1014, one hundred trillion. But this number is only one percent of the number of atoms in our speck of salt."

Bold italic is mine.

Could we loosely call a "bit" a "byte"?

Nez · May 15, 2006, 02:37 AM

Tommy.That can't be right.Windows is never fixed. :D :D

As for memory retention,it's all electrical stimili,and chemicals is'nt it? Don't know what happens after a night at the pub.I can hardly log-on,let alone remember anything. :eek:

Rick.That's too far out for me!! Carl Sagan is one of my heroes however.

RickJ · May 15, 2006, 04:41 AM

Originally Posted by Nez

Carl Sagan is one of my heroes however.

The ScienceChannel is replaying his old Cosmos series. Twas a great series despite that, in my opinion, occasionally his atheism comes out too strongly.

... but that's another subject... :D

fredg · May 15, 2006, 04:58 AM

I've read that we only use approximately 10% of our brain. Don't really know if it's true or not. If so, the possibilities would be endless if we could use 100%!

spirit1 · May 25, 2008, 10:44 AM

Hello all you Brainers, Just a thought about Brain Capacity, although some may have and use more or less than others, my qualm is in how we as human beings can not control some of the stupid and wrong ideas that crop up in our thoughts. Why Enstein, go in the direction he did, and people like Hitler become the Tyrants? Why do nice people finish last? Can anything be done to balance the rich and the poor, The haves and the have nots? Do the great Thinkers and Seers today give attention to Behavioral Modification especially at early stages when we can see something is not cosher? What is so bad about being Idealistic and believing in a world of Peace and Harmony! Are thoughts magnetic and if they are, Can we increase the time we spend thinking on good thoughts rather than complaining criticizing and condemning? Whatever the capacity of the brain, it's how we use it that counts!. so I think