Generally Speaking

Generally Speaking For centuries, the brain has been compared with all types of inventions. For example, in the past if you heard a comment about an intelligent man, it would sound like : "His brain goes like clockwork". Nowadays, what you'll probably hear would be : "Wow! His brain is as fast as a computer" Here, we'll be showing you the similarities and differences between the human brain and the modern computer. Note: if you're only looking for the comparison in speed, processing power and superiority of the human brain and computer, please proceed to the next section ::: Man Vs Machine ::: The Similarities a) Functions and Purpose Both are used for storage of information, to process information and to run tasks. In terms of the functions, both are used for mathematical calculations, carrying out complex algorithms and to storing of crucial information. a) Role in society Both play extremely important roles in society, comerce, entertainment and science Every single living creature survive by quick thinking and reflexes, that inculdes us. The computer today plays the most important roles from specialised systems controlling entire production factories to little "fuzzy logic" chips in washing machines that intelligenty monitor the washing process. b) Combining components Both work by combining the processes of several components and parts to perform their tasks. I.e. A computer consists of many many parts, including a motherboard(which itself would is made up of many parts), the disk drives, the processor, graphic cards and many more ... all of which has its own roles in the computer's processes. ( Refer to :: Workings of the Computer :: for details) Like a computer, the brain is formed out of parts. Besides having the left and right brain, there are also parts of the brain that take care of emotions, mathematical calculations, body CO-ordinations and many other tasks needed for our daily activities. ( Refer to :: Workings of the Brain :: for details) a) Eletrical signals Both work by transmitting "logic signals" to each of their parts. Signals are both electrical i.e. A computer works by using binary ("on"/"off" logical signals known as "bits", put together as "bytes" to represent data.) To communicate internally between components, represent information and store data. In a way, neurons in the brain are either "on" or "off" by either firing an action potential or not firing an action potential. (However, there are some differences between the workings of the signals of the brain and the computer. This will be discussed in the next part ::differences::) c) Upgrading and Evolution Both can change with time. (the brain evolves, while the computer upgrades with technological advances) i.e. When any computer gets outdated, there are always options To upgrade, parts To replace faster newer models To choose from. The brain of modern man is found To be significantly larger than those of 1.7 million years ago. Newsweek article "The first Wanderers" (22/5/2000 issue): May, 2000 a team of scientists uncovered two 1.7 million year old dmanisi skulls of Homo ergasters, notably smaller with only with 780cc of capacity compared with the 1500cc of modern man's skull capacity; proof of the human brain's evolution) a) Memory capacity Both can increase their memory storage capacity. Computer memory grows by adding computer chips. Memories in the brain grow by stronger synaptic connections. d) self-maintenance Both computers and brain have repair and "backup" systems. The brain has "built-in back up systems" in some cases. If one pathway in the brain is damaged, there is often another pathway that will take over this function of the damaged pathway. a) Degrading with time Both can degrade. Computers break down and brain cells deteriorate I.e. Like all machinery, computers break down with time. Brains also deteriorate with age, losing their functions and slowing down because of lower counts of chemicals and hormones (e.g. testosterone ) Newsweek article "How Alzheimer's Lay Siege to the brain" (20/4/2000 issue): Alzheimer's occur because of clogging of excessive built-up masses of Amyloid plagues (brain protein in charge of growth & maintenance of neurons) and collapse of microtubules because of break away s of their supporting structures,"Tau protein". ) The Differences a) Workings Brain cells signal each other electrochemically and enzymatically while compter components transmit stronger electrical signals through conductors. The brain uses chemicals to produce weak electrical signals to communicate with its other parts while the computer uses cables, wires and circuits to transmit artificial, stronger electrical signals that travel many times faster than those of the brain. Computers, being an eletronic invention of mankind would use eletrical conductors to operate. The human brain being biological uses tiny chemical reactions to produce its signals. b) Common sense Computers have no common sense or real intellect unlike the human brain. Computers can only follow instructions and rules preset by the programmer, they are still not complex enough to understand, analyse and learn about the world like the brain does. Traditional A.I. manages to imitate and resemble human intellect because programmers try to make the computer react like a human brain by defining a set of rules and expectations of behaviour for the computer to follow. c) evolution The brain can evolve but it has hardly changed for the past 100,000 years. The computer is rapidly changing with technology. The brain still weights 3 pounds after 100000 years, while we have already lost count of the difference models of computers that have come out since the past decade. d) evolution Although both can increase their memory storage capacity, they use difference methods. Computer memory grows by adding computer chips. Memories in the brain grow by stronger synaptic connections e) Capabilty The brain can learn and understand better, while the computer can multitask and perform complex actions. It is much easier and faster for the brain to learn new things. Yet, the computer can do many complex tasks at the same time ("multitasking") that are difficult for the brain. For example, try counting backwards and multiplying 2 numbers at the same time. However, the brain also does some multitasking using the autonomic nervous system. For example, the brain controls breathing, heart rate and blood pressure at the same time it performs a mental task. f) Emotions vs Logic It is impossible for the brain to act without emotions while computers act only on logic. Researchers already proved that brains act on emotions, that many of our actions are based on our emotional side. We know that compters act completely on logical bits, that are total absolute. All actions performed by computers are based on the instructions in their coding and other factors have no effect on them. g) Mantainance Repairing a computer is relatively simple compared to brain surgery. It is easier to fix a computer - just get new parts. There are no new or used parts for the brain. However, some work is being done with transplantation of nerve cells for certain neurological disorders such as Parkinson's disease. Both a computer and a brain can get "sick" - a computer can get a "virus" and there are many diseases that affect the brain. h) Working hours The computer can be turned off, but not the brain (it works for 24 hours a day). The brain is always changing and being modified. There is no "off" for the brain - even when an animal is sleeping, its brain is still active and working. The computer only changes when new hardware or software is added or something is saved in memory. There IS an "off" for a computer. When the power to a computer is turned off, signals are not transmitted. i) Imagination and Creativity The computer can hardly innovate and invent new ideas unlike the brain. The computer is faster at doing logical things and computations. It can do creative innovation, but only by using preset algorithms to merge current ideas(which only presents a limited range of creavity).However, the brain is better at interpreting the outside world and coming up with new ideas. The brain is capable of imagination. j) Complexity The brain has 100 billion neurons which form billions of links is many many times more complex than, the mere hundreds of millions of transistors and circuit in today's computers. Scientists understand how computers work (of course, they created them). There are thousands of neuroscientists studying the brain. Nevertheless, there is still much more to learn about the brain because of their complexity. There is more we do NOT know about the brain, than what we do know about the brain b) The Bottom Line Counting all the simlirities and differences of the brain and the computer, you would now see that the computer and the brain do have somethings in common, but in many more ways they are actually more different than they are similiar. http://library.thinkquest.org/C001501/the_saga/sim.htm Generally Speaking Many of us think that computers are many many times faster, more powerful and more capable when compared to our brains simply because they can perform calculations thousands of time faster, workout logical computations without error and store memory at incredible speeds with flawless accuracy. But is the the computer really superior to the human brain in terms of ability , processing power and adaptability ? We now give you the real comparison. Processing Power and Speed The human brain - We can only estimate the processing power of the average human brain as there is no way to measure it quantitatively as of yet. If the theory of taking nerve volume to be proportional to processing power is true we then, may have a correct estimate of the human brain's processing power. It is fortunate that we understand the neural assemblies is the retina of the vertebrate eye quite well (structurally and functionally) because it helps to give us a idea of the human brain's capability. The retina is a nerve tissue in the back of the eyeball which detects lights and sends images to the brain. A human retina has a size of about a centimeter square is half a millimeter thick and is made up of 100 million neurons. Scientists say that the retina sends to the brain, particular patches of images indicating light intensity differences which are transported via the optic nerve, a million-fiber cable which reaches deep into the brain. Overall, the retina seems to process about ten one-million-point images per second. Because the 1,500 cubic centimeter human brain is about 100,000 times as large as the retina, by simple calculation, we can estimate the processing power of a average brain to be about 100 million MIPS (Million computer Instructions Per Second ). In case you're wondering how much speed that is, let us give you an idea. 1999's fastest PC processor chip on the market was a 700 MHz pentium that did 4200 MIPS. By simple calculation, we can see that we would need at least 24,000 of these processors in a system to match up to the total speed of the brain !! (Which means the brain is like a 168,0000 MHz Pentium computer). But even so, other factors like memory and the complexity of the system needed to handle so many processors will not be a simple task. Because of these factors, the figures we so childishly calculated will most probably be a very serious underestimate. The computer - The most powerful experimental super computers in 1998, composed of thousands or tens of thousands of the fastest microprocessors and costing tens of millions of dollars, can do a few million MIPS. These systems were used mainly to stimulate physical events for high-value scientific calculations. Here, we have a chart of processor speeds for the past few years. Year Clock Speed (MHz) Instruction Rate (MIPS) 1992 200 200 (400) 1993.5 300 300 (600) 1995 400 800 (1600) 1996.5 500 1000 (2000) 1998 600 2400 (3600) 1999.5 700 2800 (4200) 2000 1000 ? From the chart above, we can observe some break through s in microprocessor speeds. The current techniques used by research labs should be able to continue such improvements for about a decade. By then maybe prototype multiprocessor chips finally reaching MIPS matching that of the brain will be cheap enough to develop. Improvements of computer speeds however have some limitations. The more memory it has, the slower it is because it takes longer to run through its memory once. Computers with less memory hence have more MIPS, but are confined to less space to run big programs. The latest, greatest super computers can do a trillion calculations per second and can have a trillion bytes of memory. As computer memory and processors improve, the Megabyte/MIPS ratio is a big factor to consider. So far, this ratio has remained constant throughout the history of computers. So who has more processing power ? By estimation, the brain has about 100 million MIPS worth of processing power while recent super-computers only has a few million MIPS worth in processor speed. That said, the brain is still the winner in the race. Because of the cost, enthusiasm and efforts still required, computer technology has still some length to go before it will match the human brain's processing power. Counting the Memory The human brain - So far, we have never heard of anybody's brain being "overloaded" because it has ran out of memory. (So it seems as if, the human brain has no limit as to how much memory it can hold. That may not be true) Our best possible guess of the average human brain's capacity would by calculating using the number of synapses connecting the neurons in the human brain. Because each of the synapses have different molecular states, we estimate each of them to be capable holding one megabyte worth of memory. Since the brain has 100-trillion-synapses, we can safely say that the average brain can hold about 100 million megabytes of memory !!! Remember what we said about the Megabyte/MIPS ratio of a computer ? By calculation, scientists discovered that the brain's memory/MIPS ratio matches that of modern computers. The megabyte/MIPS ratio seems to hold for nervous systems too! However, we all know that the memory of the brain is not absolute. It does not have set files or directories that can be deleted, copied or archived like those of a computer. For example, a particular person who thought he had memorized a telephone number for good suddenly realizes he can't recall the number. But some half-a-day later, he may suddenly recall the number again.) It is a strange phenomenal that we still can't really explain. A simple thoery is that the brain treats parts and peices of these ignored memories like a unactive "archives" sections until they are required. Memory spans of parts of the brain seem to depend on how often they are used. Even so, there is no such thing as deletion of data in a brain. The computer - Computers have more than one form of memory. We can generally classify them into primary and secondary memory. Primary memory is used as a form of temporary memory for calculation processes and storage of temporary values that need rapid access or updating, the contents of the primary memory disappear when the power is turned off. Primary memory is important when executing programs, bigger programs require more primary memory. ( RAM(random access memory), Caches & buffers are just a few examples of primary memory) Secondary memory often comes in the form of hard disks, removable disk drives and tape drives. Secondary memory is used for the storage of most of a system's data, programs and all other permanent data that should stay there even when the power is turned off. As a computer is fed with bigger, smarter programs and more data, it would naturally need more secondary memory to hold them. The latest, greatest super computers (as of 1998) have a million megabytes of memory. Today's latest model of hard disk drives on the personal computer market (in early 2000) can hold about 40,000 megabytes (40 gigabytes) of memory. Performance, Ability and Adaptability Performance and Ability - So, even though we have proved it to you that the brain is far more superior to today's best computers, many of us out there wouldn't believe it. Why ? Because of the differences in performance. We can obviously see that any low-end computer can beat the fastest human at calculation as well as storing and processing of any information. Here's what we have to say. Although the brain has got more ability, it has got more tasks to perform than that expected of a computer. Did you realize that the brain is has to constantly take charge of maintaining the human body functions for the entire lifetime its host ? Actions like breathing, blinking, coordination of all the body parts are controlled subconsciously by the brain all the time. At the same time, the brain is constantly bombarded by all your senses all at once. In one mere second, the retina sends ten one-million-point images to the brain. At the same time, your ear drums pass sound information real-time at higher-than-CD-quality. And don't forget the information send to the brain by your sense of touch and smell. If a normal higher-end computer was fed with the information from a human's senses constantly and asked to process and react to them, the computer would overload from too much information because it can't react as fast as the brain could. There are many reason why the brain loses out to computers in simple and straightforward jobs (esp. computational and recording jobs). The brain is made for general purposes, not specifically just for computational jobs. In theory, the brain could be as quick as a computer in computational and recording jobs but in real life, it will never be possible because the average human is constantly distracted by his overwhelming senses, his emotions and his own thoughts. There are exceptional people who could read through a 500 page book in less than an hour and remember all the contents as well as people who could perform mathematical calculations at a snap of their fingers but they are only rare examples that prove the hidden potential of the human brain. Adaptability and Learning The brain - Because the human brain receives so much information from all the senses at a constant rate, it is only natural that it would tend to learn and adapt very quickly about its environment and surroundings. In fact, a glance of any of the senses at the surroundings would already provide the brain with enough information about the environment to allow the brain to react immediately with a response. Many of us think that it may seem natural that the human brain is better at non assisted learning and acquiring of new skills when compared to a computer.The human brain is able to learn by trail and error, induce conclusions from past experience and create new methods to deal with the situations it has come across. However, when learning a new skill or quitting a old habit, the human brain requires time to adapt to the behaviours required. When a person does a particular task repeatedly for a number of times, he would realize that the more times he does it, the easier it is for him to do the same task. When continued over longer periods of time, it becomes so easy for the person that he does it sub-consiously, hence, it becomes a habit. Even quitting of habits need adapting to, because the habits are now part of the brain's sub consiousness and the brain performs it even without instruction from the consiousness. Remember that we told you that the memory of a brain seems unabsolute ? That could also be a reason behind the need for adaption during learning. To be given a permanent place in the sub-consious mind, knowledge of the skills are to be translated into relevant instructions for the various parts of the mind so as to perfect the various requirements of the new skill. The hand-eye coordination, finger control or the sense of timing required for the new skill are aquired mostly through trial and error, hence explaining the need for adaption. The computer - Computers are getting smarter by the day. Computer programs at research labs are constantly learning anything that the programmers are feeding them with. Voice reconigtion engines are developed but feeding the program with thousands of different voices from entire towns so that it could pick up patterns in speech, accents and slangs and learn to reconigse them. OCR (optical character recogition) programs are picking up new tips and patterns as it observes the different styles of writings from its ever increasing database. Smarter programs are now able to classify pictures of objects it never saw before into different catogories in real-time by studying their shapes and textures or by observing similair patterns in the picture's coding. The rate of learning computers using smart programs have a big advantage, that is they can share their data between different computers. Data and results achieved first by other computers by trial and error or by observation of patterns can be copied directly to other computers, hence increasing their rate of learning. Since the memory of computers are absolute (either recorded or deleted) , computers need no adapting when they are loaded with traditional programs and are asked to run them. However, some smart programs are capable of learning by trial & error, learning from their mistakes and recording the best solutions to any problems it faces. (an example is the household robot, Cye (created by Henry Thorne) which would memorise the way around a new house without anyhelp simply by trial and error ; banging into walls and barriers and drawing a map of the landmarks it has banged into) Computer learning techniques seem to have taken the right pushes at the right areas, especially the step towards learning to learn by using of the two most important senses, sight and sound. It would not be a overstatement to say that computers would in a decade's time be able to learn simply from observation and examples; In the future, we can expect simplier yet smarter programs. So who is the Superior ? The brain is still the overall winner in many fields when it comes to numbers. However, because of its other commitments, the brain is less efficient when a person tries to use it for one specific function. The brain is as we can put it, a general purpose processor when compared to the computer. It therefore loses out when it comes to efficiency and performance. We have given the estimate for total human performance at 100 million MIPS, but the level of efficiency for which this can be applied to any task may only be a small fraction of the total. (this fraction depends on the adaptibilty of the brain to the task) Deep Blue, the chess machine that bested world chess champion Garry Kasparov in 1997, used specialized chips to process chess moves at a the speed equivalent to a 3 million MIPS universal computer. This is 1/30 of the estimate for total human performance. Since it is plausible that Kasparov, probably the best human player ever, can apply his brain power to the strange problems of chess with an efficiency of 1/30, Deep Blue's near parity with Kasparov's chess skill supports the theory of the level of efficiency of total performance. ( Garry Kasparov beat Deep Blue with a very close, 2 -1 )