Similarities Between the Human Brain and a Computer Alfred Makongoro How similar or dissimilar is a human brain to a computer? This question may seem simple at first, but when you take a moment to consider that it is essentially asking for a comparison between what could be the most complex object in the known universe, and the product of said object’s attempt to duplicate itself, you quickly realize that the answer goes beyond the insouciant, superficial comparisons that jump off the top of the average person’s mind. Interestingly enough, when the similarities between a human brain and a computer are carefully scrutinized, they end up acting as a contrasting point between the two rather than highlighting the common factors. Take, for example, how information is transmitted within the inner workings of the two. In both the human brain and a computer, information is transmitted electronically. However, while the information travels through electric circuitry in a computer, in the human brain it travels through chemicals called neurotransmitters which in-turn travel over a complex network of cells designed for this very purpose known as neurons, which are connected to each other through synapses. The electric circuitry in computers enables information to travel much faster in a computer than in the human brain. The higher information speeds in a computer combined with its efficiency at executing pre-programed instructions makes computers better than humans at performing specific tasks. Furthermore, because computers have superior memory retention compared to humans, that allows them to instantly store information in their short-term memory and recall it just as fast with 100% accuracy at any given time. This ability allows them to switch back and forth between tasks of varying complexity so fast that most people assume that computers can multitask. While most humans cannot successfully accomplish a series of tasks rapid succession such as breaking of their reading mid-paragraph to take one look at a 16-digit mobile recharge voucher, then flipping a pancake and immediately using the recharge voucher as they saw it a minute ago with success, and thereafter resuming their reading exactly where they left off without the use of a bookmark or re-scanning the page and still remember to remove the pancake exactly 2 minutes and 17 seconds from the time they flipped it, our brains still ridiculously outperform computers. According to curiosity.com, the human brain has about 85 billion neurons, and the synapses connecting these neurons are numbered at 18-32 trillion, each firing 1-20 times per second. This means that somewhere between 18 to 640 trillion signals are coursing through your brain every second. When scientists tried mimicking this brain activity with a computer, it took them 83,000 processors and 40 minutes to be able to simulate the brain activity that would take place over the course of 1 second in 1% of the human brain. This gives you a rough idea of the sheer computational abilities of the human brain, abilities that the brain absolutely needs to make your life possible. To put the numbers above into context, a large portion of the things the human brain is constantly working on are either taken for granted, or are completely unnoticed, and most of those computations cannot be mimicked to the same accuracy as the human brain by a single computer. Consider for a minute a simple, sedentary activity that that you are carrying out this very moment, reading this piece of work. At this very moment, your brain is making sure your heart beats, while it makes sure you’re continuously breathing (hopefully effortlessly). At the very same time, depending on whether you’re siting or laying down, various stabilizer muscles are being utilized in a delicate balancing act to make sure you’re in a comfortable position. The very act of reading itself involves complex neural processes. What is really happening is that your brain is constantly interpreting the visual data it receives in the form of different shades of color and brightness of the different types of light in your immediate area in order to determine shapes, not only of the letters, but of everything else around the medium from which you’re reading my work in order to create a context for the information. Depth perception is also being actively computed so that you know exactly how far you need to reach in order to scroll or flip the pages. In addition, all your other senses are under constant scrutinization, being continually monitored and cross-referenced to your collective knowledge while the appropriate responses are being actively determined. The result of all that activity will be evident when a danger or something more interesting suddenly presents itself and interrupts your reading. Furthermore, except for the reading, everything else is being done virtually effortlessly. That might seem like a lot, but there are some far more complicated processes that most humans can do instinctively, like being able to run while being able to make sense of everything you see while at the same time being on a phone call while chewing gum and not biting your tongue. It would take multiple computer processors, an array of sensors, and hundreds of hours of man-power to enable one machine to do any of those tasks with the same degree of accuracy as a human whereas the human brain seemingly executes them effortlessly all while keeping you alive, making it the true multitasker. Another interesting comparison is the similarities between two identical computers, and two human brains, in this case, identical twins. When you take two identical computers and open them up, you will notice that their internal components and structures are so similar that you can move half the parts from one computer to the other and vice versa, and they will still function the same way they did before you took them apart. However, the story completely changes when we examine the brains of our identical twins. The human brain has a characteristic that cannot be duplicated by man in any way, plasticity. Plasticity essentially means that whenever a person experiences something or is exposed to information, new neural pathways will be formed in his brain, or existing ones will be strengthened. In the case where a pathway has not been used, the neurons that lie along it will eventually be consolidated into new or existing pathways, essentially “deleting” the unused path and quite literally reshaping the brain. It is because of plasticity that we can learn and form habits, and it is partially responsible for the ease or difficulty of acquiring new knowledge or a skill and replacing certain habits. It is also because of plasticity that if we were to monitor the brains of our twins from birth, we would notice that although the neurons may be arranged in an identical manner at birth, their brains will quickly start to form different pathways as the two children progress through life, and the difference will become sharper the older they get. It is because of the lack of plasticity that a computer will never be able to learn in the same way that a human does. Besides plasticity, another thing that will forever prevent computers from becoming equals with the human brain is their lack of creative power. Throughout history, humans have displayed an uncanny ability to come up with abstract concepts of things that had not existed prior to the moment they were conceived in the mind of an individual, and then they went a step further to come up with ways to actualize those abstract concepts, and in some cases, improve them over time. The result of this creative power can be witnessed in the diverse languages, cultures, traditions, and different art forms across the globe as well as scientific and technological breakthroughs, both in the past and in the present. As if to add to the mystery, the creative power of the human brain sometimes works in ways that cannot be fully explained. People often have the misconception that the human brain only works when a person is actively thinking, but that couldn’t be further from the truth. The human brain is constantly at work, even when you sleep, and unlike computer, it can never go completely off (unless the individual in possession of said brain has expired). As a testament to this ability, there have been many instances where individuals received solutions to problems they had failed to solve over an extended period of time after they stopped thinking about the problems. A classic example is when you misplace an object only to recall its location long after you stopped looking for it. In addition, sleep-inspired creativity has been the source of paintings, classical compositions, individual songs to entire studio albums, literary works, scientific breakthroughs, and even a Nobel Peace Prize. Despite the fact that computers are superior to human brains when it comes to solving problems that require the execution of mathematical and logical computations at a high speed with extreme accuracy, they will never compare to the human brain in any other capacity. A computer is just another tool created by man to serve a specific purpose and to be used as a means to transcend a specific boundary and push past our limits. At the end of the day, comparing a computers computational powers in the parameters for which it was created for to the general ability of the human brain could be analogous to comparing a high-performance vehicle with the overall athletic ability of the human body. The human body may not be able to outfly a jet-powered aircraft, or outrun a high-performance vehicle, or outswim, a ship, or dive deeper than a submarine, or even manage to get to the vacuum of space and survive there on it’s own, but the human body can do so much more than any of these vehicles. Sources: https://faculty.washington.edu/chudler/bvc.html https://human-memory.net/brain-neurons-synapses/ https://curiosity.com/topics/the-human-brain-is-really-really-fast-curiosity/ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sleep_and_creativity
