http://www.kurzweilai.net/news/news_printable.html?id=2417
Discovering the Capacity of Human Memory Brain and Mind, August 2003 The memory capacity of the human brain is on the order of 10^8432 bits, three scientists have estimated. Writing in the August issue of Brain and Mind, their "OAR" cognitive model asserts that human memory and knowledge are represented by a network of relations, i.e., connections of synapses between neurons, rather than by the neurons themselves as in the traditional information-container model (1 neuron = 1 bit). This explains why "the magnitude of neurons in an adult brain seems stable; however, huge amount of information can be remembered throughout the entire life of a person," they point out. Based on the projected computer memory capacity of 8 x 10^12 bits in the next ten years, Yingxu Wang et al. conclude that the memory capacity of a human brain is equivalent to at least "10^8419 modern computers....This tremendous difference of memory magnitudes between human beings and computers demonstrates the efficiency of information representation, storage, and processing in the human brains." They also conclude that "this new factor has revealed the tremendous quantitative gap between the natural and machine intelligence" and that "next-generation computer memory systems may be built according to their relational model rather than the traditional container metaphor" because "the former is more powerful, flexible, and efficient, and is capable of generating a mathematically unlimited memory capacity by using limited number of neurons in the brain or hardware cells in the next generation computers." Brain and Mind 4 (2): 189-198, August 2003 ------- To unsubscribe, change your address, or temporarily deactivate your subscription, please go to http://v2.listbox.com/member/[EMAIL PROTECTED]
