The human brain is often considered more powerful than a computer! Really? A study has proven just the opposite, and the results are more surprising than you might imagine.
For a snail, crossing the highway is not the solution to the future. For humans, faced with artificial intelligence, it would be the same thing. This comparison seems strange and yet it makes sense. Biologists at Caltech in California, USA quantified it. vitessevitesse of human thought in bits/s (a bit corresponds to 1 or 0). And while this is often claimed. The mindThe mind Man is the most powerful computer in the world, the truth is surprising! According to biologists, even for super-fast minds, our brains can only process information at 10 bits per second. Compared to artificial data transmission systems, it is extremely slow. Wi-Fi processing, for example, is measured in hundreds of millions of bits per second.
This is average for the human brain. It all depends on the particular mode of information processing. In reading or writing, for example, scientists have quantified a bit as a character of the text. To hear speech, it’s basically a sound.
As for writing, the researchers took a professional typist as an example. It can type at a speed of 120 words per minute, or an average of five letters per word, or 10 keystrokes, or bits, per second. When it comes to listening, the recommended rate to ensure this is as high as 160 words per minute. Applying the same calculation, it comes to 13 bits per second.
The team then evaluated throughput for processing more complex information. It’s a case of solving a Rubik’s Cube. In keeping with the world record, the bitrate will again be limited to 11.8 bits per second. For number recall challenges, this drops to just 4.9 bits per second. For faster memory cards, this speed goes up to 17.7 bits per second.
Paradox: Why do we all live at only 10 bits/second, when the best can solve a Rubik’s Cube in seconds? © Speed Cubing Clips
An ancestral barrier
This “slowness” is quite surprising when we know that ” SensorSensor “, meaning the nervous system and sensory organs are very powerful. Thus, a single cone photoreceptor ofthe eyethe eye Humans can transmit information at a speed of about 270 bits per second. This equates to 1.6 billion bits per eye. To process this significant amount of data, nerfnerf Optics sort of gets it. CompressionCompression to reduce throughput to 100 million bits per second. But the problem is always the same, because the brain will reach about 10 bits/second. In the end, we extract only 10 bits from the billions that our senses capture and transmit.
How to explain this laziness? Biologists consider it ancestral. Originally, in a slow world, it was important to focus only on MovementsMovements Towards food and avoiding predators. Then these 10 bits were necessary only in the most unfavorable circumstances.
Too bad for Neuralink.
So, if we take this study into account, for those who, like Elon MuskElon Muskintend to improve their cognitive abilities thanks to AI and ImplantsImplants Like Neuralink, this is wishful thinking. The ObstacleObstacle At 10 bits/second will always be the same regardless of the power of the machine that improves our thinking. The reality is that AIs don’t have these constraints and they risk forcing us out of certain areas and games in particular.UniverseUniverse Transportation while road infrastructure and CarsCars Designed around individuals whose data processing speed averages 10 bits/second, excluding controls Autonomous carsAutonomous carsThe infrastructure for these machines equipped with one kilobit per second cognition can be completely replaced. In these circumstances, the snail that we are must move away from the road infrastructure as pedestrians.
Of course, this study has its limitations, because human “bits” and computer bits are not the same and QuantificationQuantification Every human activity is hard to predict in bits. However, the tendency is there and this limitation of the human mind forces you to think… at least, as slowly as possible.
