#100 billion neurons

[squeakitties]

"how is goodra furbait" not to be mean but the human brain contains around 100 billion neurons and you don't need a lot of them to recognize that this might appeal to some individuals

[robreyart]

A Galaxy Within 24 x 18 in, 2019

We are each a little galaxy of our own. It's a mind-bending exercise trying to comprehend the 100 billion stars found in a typical galaxy. Yet, each of us has roughly the same number of neurons in our own brain, performing a symphony of consciousness. Similar too, is the number of atoms that write out our DNA code. We are a staggeringly complex and unique collection of natural components, come together for a short, precious moment.

Large numbers are difficult to fathom, but to be disappointed in the realization that we are “just” collections of atoms moving in accordance with the laws of physics, is to misunderstand the depth of this astonishing complexity, and the billions of years it took to evolve.

“We are the miracle, we human beings. Not a break-the-laws-of-physics kind of miracle; a miracle in that it is wondrous and amazing how such complex, aware, creative, caring creatures could have arisen in perfect accordance with those laws [of nature] … Our emergence has brought meaning and mattering into the world ... It bequeaths to us the responsibility and opportunity to make life into what we would have it be.” -Sean Carroll, The Big Picture

The print shop is back up and running! 

[sophieinwonderland]

So, singlet here, been on tumblr for a while but only started to join plural spaces when a friend told me they were plural and now I am trying to learn more. Sadly, the first plural creator I found was Aspen and now I’m trying to unlearn all the endo hate I’ve learned in the past month. If you don’t mind, could you tell me what an endo actually is? Whenever I asked them they just told me what I now know to be lies.

Sure! Thanks for reaching out and being open-minded!

In its most simple form, an endogenic system is a system who is plural for reasons other than trauma.

These include created systems, systems who have been plural as long as they can remember, and spontaneous systems who become plural without explanation. And any of these can have spiritual or psychological views on their system. The plural umbrella is inclusive to any plurals regardless of origin.

Here is what we know:

Plurality is old and everywhere: Throughout history, in cultures around the globe, plurality has existed in the form of possession states or communing with spirits or similar phenomena.

Many of the above experiences have been studied, and psychiatrists agree that they generally aren't aversive and shouldn't be considered a mental disorder. There are specific exceptions carved out stating that non-aversive plurality shouldn't be diagnosed as a disorder.

The invention of the internet and ability to connect with other plurals without fear of persecution led to the creation of the first inclusive plural communities online, shared by anyone who was multiple in one body for any reason.

At the time, the term "natural multiples" was used to refer to what we now call endogenic systems. The community replaced the term with "endogenic" around 2014.

Most of the resources used by the modern plural community came out of the inclusive side of the community. "Headmate" was a non-medical alternative to "alter." "Plural" was coined as a non-medical alternative to "multiple" which was associated with "multiple personality disorder" at the time. Fictives and factives both date back to the soulbonder community. And resources like Pluralkit and Simply Plural were made by endos.

What we don't know:

Scientific research into endogenic systems is still in its infancy. And though it indisputably exists, we don't know exactly what causes it... but we also don't know what causes someone to be a singlet...

Our brain is estimated to have 86 billion neurons with over 100 trillion synapses. We don’t understand what make all of these create one single personality.

The theory of structural dissociation suggests that children start with a less integrated personality that integrates over time. But that opens the door to ask, does this integration occur naturally due to biological factors, or is it from sociological and environmental pressure?

It seems possible to me that different environments or genetic factors could lead to certain humans just integrating into multiple people instead of one. This would explain systems who report being plural since birth.

For created systems, one hypothesis could be that it might involve a form of hypnosis. Some doctors have long believed hypnosis might involve dissociated parts, and Dr Samuel Veisseire and Michael Lifshitz, who have studied tulpamancy closely, believe the practices tulpamancers use to create tulpas might be inherently hypnotic.

Stanford University is doing a neurological study into tulpamancers, and I'm excited to see the results of that, but we aren't sure when that study is going to be complete. And that's likely just the first of many, and though it will be another piece of the puzzle, it certainly won't answer our most pressing questions for how this works. But I, for one, can't wait to learn more! 😁

[mephistopheles]

sleepy. let me tell you how much ive come to be sleepy since i began to live. there are 100 billion neurons filling my 1,200 cubic cm of cerebra. if the word sleepy was engraved on each dendrite and each axon in those one hundred billion neurons it would not equal one one-billionth of the sleepiness i feel at this micro-instant. sleepy. sleepy

[wweeird]

73/100 prevented from blooming (radish flower…)

materials: two acrylic paints and a dark violet Derwent Inktense pencil. and the billion neuronal cells that were cruelly killed while I was trying to come up with what to draw today (zero new ideas as a result). I’m officially tired

I joined the 3materialsdrawingchallenge hosted by @/kathryn_boyt, @/charlotte.durance and @/naomitippingillustrator. the aim is to draw every day for a 100 days from life using just 3 materials and for no more than 30 minutes. 

:

[ewanmitchellcrumbs]

ok our tags on that Michael Gavey post could not have been more different 💀

My mind went from awwwing at your tags, to wondering if you can see the outline of his cock through his shorts, so I zoomed in and noticed the unfortunate shape the crease of the fabric makes.

The three pound universe that is my brain processed that thought using 100 billion neurons that connect at more than than 500 trillion points through synapses that travel 300 miles per hour so that I could type that out and share it with you. Isn’t life beautiful?

[gallifreyinstituteforlearning]

How many nerve endings do Time Lords have?

How many nerve endings do Time Lords have?

While we don’t have an exact number for their nerve endings, we can make a well-reasoned estimate:

🧠 Central Nervous System (CNS)

The CNS of a Time Lord, consisting of the brain and spinal cord, is significantly more sophisticated than that of a human. The Gallifreyan brain is about 1.2 times larger and contains more intricate neural pathways, allowing for advanced cognitive functions and sensory processing. This means their CNS supports more nerve endings to manage these enhanced capabilities.

🌐 Peripheral Nervous System (PNS)

The PNS in Gallifreyans is also more complex, with an extensive network of nerves spreading throughout their bodies. This system includes both the somatic (voluntary) and autonomic (automatic) nervous systems. Here are some key features:

More Peripheral Nerves: Gallifreyans have a more extensive PNS, meaning they likely have a greater number of nerve endings.

Higher Sensitivity: Their peripheral nerves are more sensitive, which would necessitate a higher density of nerve endings to detect and process sensory information more accurately.

🔍 Enhanced Nervous System Features

Super-Ganglion: Gallifreyans have a super-ganglion connecting the two hemispheres of their brain, which contains a dense cluster of nerves, enhancing communication between brain regions.

Three Brain Stems: Gallifreyans have three brain stems with 93 pairs of nerves, significantly more than humans (43 pairs), allowing for rapid signal transmission between the brain and body.

Additional Ganglia: Time Lords have additional nerve clusters (ganglia) spread throughout their bodies, including below the left clavicle, in the brain, and between their hearts. These clusters suggest an increased number of nerve endings in these areas to manage complex bodily functions.

🧬 Speculative Numbers and the Human Question

Humans have an estimated 100 billion nerve cells (neurons) in the brain, with trillions of connections (synapses), and approximately 10 million nerve endings in the PNS. Given the enhancements in Gallifreyan biology:

Nerve Endings in CNS: With a brain 1.2 times larger and more complex, Gallifreyans could have around 150 billion nerve cells or maybe more. The number of synapses would also be higher, potentially in the range of 1.5 times that of humans, facilitating their superior information processing and sensory perception.

Nerve Endings in PNS: With more peripheral nerves and higher sensitivity, the PNS likely contains a significantly greater number of nerve endings than in humans. This could be estimated at around 15-20 million nerve endings.

🏫 So...

While we can only really guess the exact number, it’s clear that Gallifreyans have way more nerve endings than humans. Can you feel it, Gallifrey? Bloomin' hope so with all that going on.

Related:

Can Gallifreyans get pins and needles?: Parathesia and its causes.

Why are Gallifreyan shoulders sensitive?: In-depth look at the infamous left shoulder ganglion and its effects.

Do Gallifreyans have erogenous zones/can they control them?: If they have erogenous zones and how they could be activated.

Hope that helped! 😃

Any purple text is educated guesswork or theoretical. More content ... →📫Got a question? | 📚Complete list of Q+A and factoids →😆Jokes |🩻Biology |🗨️Language |🕰️Throwbacks |🤓Facts →🫀Gallifreyan Anatomy and Physiology Guide (pending) →⚕️Gallifreyan Emergency Medicine Guides →📝Source list (WIP) →📜Masterpost If you're finding your happy place in this part of the internet, feel free to buy a coffee to help keep our exhausted human conscious. She works full-time in medicine and is so very tired 😴

[mikerickson]

Rather than merely integrating biological concepts into computing, FinalSpark's online platform 'taps' into spherical clusters of lab-grown human brain cells called organoids. A total of 16 organoids are housed within four arrays that connect to eight electrodes each and a microfluidics system that supplies water and nutrients for the cells. The approach, known as wetware computing, in this case harnesses researchers' abilities to culture organoids in the lab, a fairly new technology that allows scientists to study what are essentially mini replicas of individual organs… While we don't have any numbers on their specific system, its energy usage, or processing power, FinalSpark's research team says that training a single large language model like GPT-3, a precursor to GPT-4, required 10 gigawatt hours or about 6,000 times the energy that one European citizen uses in a year. Meanwhile, the human brain operates its 86 billion neurons using only a fraction of that energy: just 0.3 kilowatt hours per day. Technology trends also indicate that the booming AI industry will consume 3.5 percent of global electricity by 2030. Already, the IT industry as a whole is responsible for around 2 percent of global CO2 emissions.

Looks like the "brains" are grown from stem cells and can live for about 100 days. I'm skeptical something like this could be scaled up such that everyone starts using biocomputers in like cell phones and at home, but at least people are experimenting with trying to find less energy-intensive systems?

[eucanthos]

critical brain hypothesis

The brain operates near a/its critical point, rather than being precariously poised there. This arrangement offers much-needed stability while still enabling highly efficient information transfer and processing.

Gerardo Ortiz remembers well the time in 2010 when he first heard his Indiana University colleague John Beggs talk about the hotly debated “critical brain” hypothesis

Ortiz promptly identified one of the knottier problems with the hypothesis: It’s very difficult to maintain a perfect tipping point in a messy biological system like the brain.

Ortiz’s criticism has beleaguered the theory ever since the late Danish physicist Per Bak proposed it in 1992. Bak suggested that the brain exhibits “self-organized criticality,” tuning to its critical point automatically. Its exquisitely ordered complexity and thinking ability arise spontaneously, he contended, from the disordered electrical activity of neurons.

Bak’s canonical example of a self-organized critical system is a simple sandpile. If you drop individual grains of sand on top of a sandpile one by one, each grain has a chance of causing an avalanche. Bak and colleagues showed that those avalanches will follow a “power law,” with smaller avalanches occurring proportionally more frequently than larger ones. So if there are 100 small avalanches in which 10 grains slide down the side of the sandpile during a given period, there will be 10 larger avalanches involving 100 grains in the same period, and just one large avalanche involving 1,000 grains. When a huge avalanche collapses the whole pile, the base widens, and the sand begins to pile up again until it returns to its critical point, where, again, avalanches of any size may occur. The sandpile is incredibly complex, with millions or billions of tiny elements, yet it maintains an overall stability.

Scientists often use the same model for criticality as they do for nuclear chain reactions. In nuclear fission, a fission event gives off two particles, and they each give off two more, and so on, yielding a branching ratio (the expected number of descendants from a single event) of two. Such a system goes “supercritical” to produce an atomic bomb. Meanwhile in a “subcritical” system, the branching ratio is less than one, and so the chain reaction fizzles out. In a critical system, the branching ratio will be exactly one, setting off a sustained nuclear reaction capable (for example) of running a power plant indefinitely. Similarly, if the brain is truly critical, there will be a power-law distribution of avalanche sizes, but one neuron should, on average, activate one other neuron.

If the brain were extremely subcritical, according to Beggs, incoming signals would get damped and have no impact. “It would be like trying to talk to someone who is asleep or drunk,” he said. In a supercritical brain, incoming signals would get lost in a frenzy of electrical activity, and the effect would be like trying to talk to a seizure victim. Beggs and others argue that the neural network is most sensitive to incoming signals at the critical point. There, a chain of active neurons allows information to spread from one brain area to another without dying out prematurely or exploding.

Excerpts from Jennifer Ouellette's essay for Quanta Magazine June 14, 2018. Bill Domonkos' gif 

https://www.quantamagazine.org/brains-may-teeter-near-their-tipping-point-20180614/

[solarwynd]

Right?? This whole week as LC was increasing I saw non stop tears and recriminations because "guys we need to focus on new releases". But somehow LC reaches one billion and now suddeny the new focus is getting every member to 1B. They don't even seem to be that sad that neuron has completely left the chart. It's been 1 week 💀

Anyway the project is doomed to fail like anon said. Many armys nowadays seem to have no concept of how charts or streams work. I don't think most of them have worked out how long it's going to take to get all of them to 1 billion. With the numbers as they are SNTY and LMA would probably be the easiest to get to 1 billion and it would still take at least half an year more to get that done. Reminds me of that one army yesterday who had no idea that the spotify counter is for unfiltered streams or that army from a few weeks back who tried to cover up being an anti by saying let's get LC to 1 billion in 3 days when it still had 20M left to go.

I used to think armys (and other solos) were being deliberately obtuse about things because there's no way they don't see the payola JK got or not know how the hot 100 or radio works but I'm becoming more and more convinced that the armys of today are not the ones from 2018-2021 because they seem to have no clue what's going on most of the time.

Fandom is already divided as hell - with the anti-company stans and boycotts, the pro-company stans demonising other armys, some outright antis masquerading as ot7s and everyone else only being here for bragging rights and fighting other kpop stans, things are not looking good for 2025. BTS better bring their a-game for their next work because if they're planning on skating by with some boring ballad as a title track, weak concept and with all of them sitting on chairs, its going to land them nowhere with the fandom in this state.

All I know is armys better point that finger at themselves if hobi doesn’t chart on hot 100 next week, cause I’ve never seen such a lack of effort for a bts member’s comeback in all my years of being in that fandom.

“I'm becoming more and more convinced that the armys of today are not the ones from 2018-2021 because they seem to have no clue what's going on most of the time.”

You’d be correct. A lot of people left with the english trilogy and onward and got replaced by the chart obsessed ones here now. Which sucks cause army twitter was better 2018-2019. It definitely still had it’s issues but armys back then were a lot more useful.

“BTS better bring their a-game for their next work because if they're planning on skating by with some boring ballad as a title track, weak concept and with all of them sitting on chairs, its going to land them nowhere with the fandom in this state.”

Chair era was the absolute pit. I know it was concentrated around the more ballad type songs but even spring day had choreo. Pair that with both LGO and YTC being dull songs everything was just so lackluster. And after seeing Jimin do smf2 level choreo, having to watch him go back to sitting on chairs would do me in. So I honestly hope that they don’t come back with that. Or them damn white dionysus clown boots!

[so-much-for-subtlety]

Harvard and Google have partnered on this really impressive project to map 1 cubic millimeter of human brain tissue that was removed from a patient as part of surgery to prevent seizures.

Obv false colored, but these are the most detailed views we’ve had of a brain.

Harvard did the wet science and Google used algorithms to automatically analyze and map the samples.

In that tiny chunk of brain there were 57,000 neurons and 150,000,000 synapses mapped, that’s about 2,600 synapses per neuron (the max case they found was 5,000 synapses).

If that’s representative of overall brain that means we have around 150 trillion synapses in a human adult brain*.

It’s also interesting to compare to LLMs like ChatGPT. ChatGPT 4 is rumored to have 1.76 trillion neurons, and they use an architecture where each neuron is connected to every other neuron (although some at such a low weight that they might as well not be connected) so that’s about 3 septillion connections (!!!)

Even if only 1% of those connections are functionally important in a LLM that’s still equivalent to 100,000,000 human brains.

We probably already have the processing power to emulate a human brain, but the architecture is absolutely wrong- for starters LLMs are completely serial, brains are massively parallel.

Although LLMs are very cool, no matter how much we scale them up they will never be anything comparable to the type of information processing that occurs in a biological brain.

The other cool thing noted in one article about this project was the data that would be required to scan a single human brain: they ball parked it to be about 1.6 zettabytes of storage, which for memory alone today would be about $50 billion, and would require a server farm with area of 100 football fields.

[inkintheinternet]

The 3rd and 4th Dimensions

By Arjuwan Lakkdawala

Ink in the Internet

We are defined by what we think, it is also what sets us apart from the animals. Consciousness is the true expanse of the world we experience and interact with, the subconscious plays its part as well on who we are and who we become.

So is there anything on earth more valuable than information? We could say material things like diamonds or gold. But I could load a truck with diamonds and it would still be a truck. Load the mind with information and the person changes. What kind of change will depend on the information.

The knowledge we have completely changes everything about us - from the way we talk, walk, to the way we behave in every situation.

We can almost instantly tell what a person is about from their choice of words.

The significance of mind over matter raises the question of what is intelligence? This is not simple to answer because our thinking takes many forms, so which pattern of thoughts and formation of ideas can be categorized is difficult. Remember we are not here trying to define the meaning of words, that can easily be done using a dictionary, what we are trying to define is what is the intellectual ability used to construct and understand ideas, concepts, mathematics, and formations of multidimensional patterns of thinking, and of course the part memory storage plays in strengthening our thinking.

Computer scientists of this era have this very task of understanding the processes of human thinking, from the virtual such as the imagination to the intricate details of the brain’s chemistry and functions of neurons and cells, etc.

And then to replicate whatever they can into neuromorphic computer chips.

The reason I have gone into these details is that we are - especially in this era highly effected by information, as we get subjected to an unprecedented amount daily, which is the first time this has happened to mankind. It is increasing the expanse of our minds for better or worse.

In my research I found two concrete definitions of two types of intellect.

1. Crystallized Intelligence

2. Fluid Intelligence

The first is said to be easier to rely on and acquire, which is intelligence based on memorizing sets of information either by reading or experience.

The second is perhaps the closest definition we have reached so far regarding “intelligence.”

Fluid Intelligence is the intellectual ability to think and come up with a solution, discovery, or understanding of things, or complex problems, we had no prior information about.

It is rather easy to understand how Crystallized Intelligence is acquired and then applied. But how does the mind produce Fluid Intelligence on demand when there is little or no prior information about a task. I didn’t find a definite answer to this question but I got nearer to understanding it by looking into neurons, brain plasticity, necessity, logic, reason, mathematics, and so much more.

A 2018 article from the Human Brain Project sheds some light on this aspect.

An experiment was conducted on living brain tissue taken from patients that had undergone operations for tumors. In cases some healthy tissue is removed to perform the operation. Prior to the operations of about 50 patients they were given IQ tests.

Side note: IQ tests don’t really define how intelligent we are but they can measure and compare how well we solve specific intellectual tasks, by counting the correct answers and how fast we were able to reach the right solutions.

Based on this method of cognitive examination each patient was given an IQ score.

Then MRI examination analysis were taken into account as well. The final conclusion of the study was published in the journal eLife.

They found that higher IQ patients’ neurons fired up faster, and they had longer dendrites. The human brain has about 100 billion neurons, they pass on information in the form of electrical signals known as ‘Action Potentials’ the individuals with higher IQ had faster action potentials. Based on this study we can safely say that a sign of high intelligence is ‘speed.’

However, what about individuals who struggle with learning, why is there a difference in the cognitive abilities from person to person.

It is said that intelligence is partly heritable and that there are genes that influence better brain structure and functionality, which in turn influences better performance in intelligence tests.

Little is known about how genes and the environment affect the brain while it is developing, but while there are genes that can predisposition a person to better or high intelligence, external factors like education, emotional well being, mental health, and various other aspects could effect the ability to learn.

Early researchers believed that the brain developed only till adulthood, but new research shows that the brain is malleable, and has neuroplasticity also known as brain plasticity, studies have shown that as the brain learns not only its functionality improves but it physically changes its structure. And this is a lifelong ongoing process.

The brain is so efficient in caring for itself that if there is physical damage to part of the brain, it will take the functionality of that part and move it to another region and restore an ability that was lost. This is provided the damage is not too severe.

Even our neurons are selected based on usage, the ones not used often or never, die. So to improve learning the brain should be given mental exercise to improve neuroplasticity; brain structures and functions.

The difference in neuroplasticity could be one of the major factors of why intelligence and learning is not on the same level from person to person. However, improvement is possible for everyone at any age.

Another powerful aspect of learning is mental imagery without external input. Examples are the imagination, visual memory recollection, dreams. I did research on how exactly the brain creates visual images, it is a category of ongoing research, but quite a bit is known about the regions said to be responsible for mental images, like the Primary Visual Cortex at the back of the head, and the Prefrontal Cortex at the front of the head. The Hippocampus and amygdala are also contributors among other parts and functions.

Some personal notes: from everything I have read until now what I can understand is that thoughts do have a physical existence in the form of electrical signals (action potentials) and so the signals firing up in the brain can indeed physically change its structure, and the mental imagery is that the brain is a thinking biological device capable of creating vision, it’s how we see the world with our eyes open, and the imagery mechanism within our brains continues in dreams and thoughts.

I have to say Subhan Allah who created us in such miraculous construction.

Now that we have a good understanding of the internal biological processes of learning, let’s ponder how did man’s thinking evolve to scientific methodologies from the primitive era of the Neanderthals and Denisovans. I think mankind first looked to the cosmos, the sun, moon, stars, unfortunately ancient history records show that science was not the immediate inspiration but it was paganism with human sacrifice, so to move forward in time to the records of the earliest scientific thoughts about the world and the cosmos, we’ll explore the scientific history of the atom.

What are we made of? What is everything made of? The simple answer is atoms. In the 5th century BCE, Greek philosophers made some correct assumptions, and possibly so did Indian and Chinese philosophers at about the same time.

1. Subdivision was possible to a unit that could not be further divided (atoms)

2. Atoms are in constant motion.

While the atoms can be split they contain 'elementary particles' that cannot like electrons and quarks.

There are four states of matter: Solid, Liquid, Plasma, Gas. We can see these and so they are easy to identify.

(Examples of plasma is the sun and the stars, even some fires can be a type of plasma.)

But what about what we cannot see like the atoms. How did the earliest scientists find evidence of their existence. This is one of the geniuses of human thinking, to apply logic, reason, and experimentation to make discoveries and then inventions.

The credit for the first direct evidence of the existence of atoms goes to the Scottish botanist Robert Brown, who in 1828 discovered that pollen suspended in water was moving constantly in complex paths, this is observable with a microscope. The movement was due to the molecules in the pollen and water colliding. This phenomena was named Brownian Motion.

Then Albert Einstein in 1905 published papers that explained how Brownian Motion could be used to measure the size of atoms and molecules.

He explained that the movement was due to kinetic thermal energy of molecules

Picking up on Einstein’s paper the French physicist Jean-Baptiste Perrin in 1908 produced accurate sizes for atoms and molecules.

The measurements can be made by seeing how many microns particles with the diameter of 1 micron move horizontally in a minute.

These were the earliest indisputable confirmation of the existence of atoms.

Scientists did it without modern super advanced technology, they used reason, logic, mathematics, and developed experiments with high precision scientific parameters.

The ability of discovering the depth of the iceberg from the tip of it is one of the most prominent marks of intelligence.

Carl Sagan, the astronomer, planetary scientist, and science communicator, inspired by the 1884 satirical novella Flatland by the English schoolmaster Edwin Abbott Abbott, gave a fascinating demonstration of how those living in a 2 dimensional Flatland could have difficulty understanding the 3rd dimension.

A round object like an apple descends into a land where everything is flat, they only have lines, everything is 2 dimensional. So they only see parts of the apple that land and the parts are flat, they cannot see the complete apple.

In the same way the earth looks flat but is round though we being on earth, sort of like in flatland cannot see it, but when we go into space the 3rd dimension we can see it. There could a 4th dimension that we cannot perceive. Mysteries and scientific discoveries could be similar but possible to unravel if we study the clues.

Copyright ©️ Arjuwan Lakkdawala 2024

Arjuwan Lakkdawala is an author and independent science researcher.

Twitter/X/Instagram: Spellrainia Email: arjuwan.writer@gmail.com

Sources:

Libretexts - Physics

Britannica - Max Planck, roger h. stuewer, fact-checked by the editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica

Plasma-Universe.com - know plasma, k ow 99.999% of the universe (no plasma, no universe)

PSFC - Plasma Science and Fusion Center, massachusetts institute of technology, what is plasma?

Princeton University PPPL, about plasmas and fusion, what is plasma?

Human Brain Project: Brains of smarter people have bigger and faster neurons

Leibniz research centre for working environment and human factors, how genes, brain characteristics and intelligence are connected

Very well mind - how neuroplasticity works, kendra cherry, msed

eLife - how the brain constructs dreams, Erin j. Wamsley

Johnson and Wales University, college of professional studies - unlocking the power of the mind: the brain region behind creativity and imagination, jwu

The conversation - what is mental imagery? Brain researchers explain the pictures in your mind and why they useful

Brownian motion - general physics

[robreyart]

Some detail images of A Galaxy Within II Oil, 24 x 18 in

We are each a little galaxy of our own. It's a mind-bending exercise trying to comprehend the 100 billion stars found in a typical galaxy. Yet, each of us has roughly the same number of neurons in our own brain, performing a symphony of consciousness. We are a staggeringly complex and unique collection of natural components, come together for a short, precious moment.

If you’re disappointed by the realization that we are “just” collections of atoms, then you may want to consider more deeply the unfathomable multitude of those atoms, how intricately organized they are to facilitate life, and the oceans of time it took for evolution to shape them into that configuration. The average human body is comprised of more atoms than there are stars, not just in our galaxy, but in the visible universe. These 7 octillion atoms are arrayed in astonishing complexity to create 500 trillion cells of numerous types, each with its own suite of exquisite molecular machines, precisely folded proteins, and ordered genetic code. It’s hard to comprehend how long it took for this intricate system to evolve. If that time were the Atlantic ocean at it’s narrowest crossing, then all of human history would represent the first 13 feet from the shore. Just to get back to the point where our ancestor was some kind of fish is roughly 185 million generations that had to survive and pass on their genes so that you could experience this world, with all its heartache, and its wonder.

Prints: https://robrey.storenvy.com

[welcome-to-green-hills]

I forgot you like the science stuff ooooooooh okay and you mentioned mind uploading and I have a THOUGHT.

A HEADCANNON (kinda) because I like ti take pieces of canon and try to fit them all together.

And I'd love your thoughts.

In Sonic Brawl, Rouge says Shadow has Maria's soul. That is super vague, but we do know that Gerald was willing to go to any lengths to save Maria.

... Do you think a backup of her brain was created and 'downloaded' into Shadow?

(I have other thoughts in tandem with this but they're all mildly sad so I just want to ask the fun one💜)

Hello, my dear!❤️✨

I’m terribly sorry for taking so long on your ask. I wanted to make sure that my answer was reasonable, as well as supplied some knowledge to the character’s purpose of creation. Essentially, I wanted to make sure that I was thorough enough to share my thoughts. I’ve even shared this question with a couple of my colleagues at the lab to hear their thoughts too. This will be a pretty lengthy, but well-educated answer.

I absolutely agree, the journal entries from Sonic Battle are vague. I feel that they are purposefully meant to be vague so that the audience could make their own conclusions on what it means. Short answer: possibly, but I lean more towards “no.” Long and complicated answer can be found under the “read more” tab (because why not😅).

We just don’t know the extent of how extreme Gerald’s plans were with discovering immortality. We’ve seen in SA2, Sonic Battles, Sonic Rivals 2 and ShTH 2005 that Gerald has been known to tamper with very questionable forces in order to achieve immortality at the cost of risking everyone and everything around him. It’s desperation, yes. He care more about Maria than anything else. I think it’s just… really up for debate.

We have a couple of ideas that need to be addressed first in order for me to share my thoughts:

1). Brain uploading requirements, zettabytes

2). Psychology/Ethics and Moral Teachings

BRAIN UPLOADING REQUIREMENTS (ZETTABYTES):

The assumption that Gerald was crafty with uploading a consciousness into a computer is a process called “Whole Brain Emulation (WBE).” This is also referred to as a “mind transfer.” This is a process in which, presumably, has the ability to scan the state of our minds and transfer into a database whether it’s postmortem (deceased) or antemortem (living).

As of now, the process of uploading one’s consciousness into an artificial body or database is a pseudoscience. This means that it’s more of a fantasy sci-fi scenario other than supplying factual results. Whole Brain Emulation would have to take into consideration of scanning layers upon layers of one’s mind and convert them into various strands of code. The human brain is made up of neurons; the human mind has about 86 billion neurons (PNAS, 2012).

In order to even begin scanning the mind, we’d need an exorbitant amount of storage space that could store not even a handful of neurons. We’d need to take into consideration of zettabytes. The human mind itself can store about 1.1950 petabytes of data in a lifetime if it was used at its fullest capacity (Houzel, 2009). That’s roughly two zettabytes. That’s like finding the Pacific Ocean with water twice! Thankfully, we live in a world where we have access to zettabytes. Zettabytes are used to store large sums of data in servers for social media sites, like Tumblr and Twitter. Being able to store all of the data into a database seem plausible, but we still run into a couple of problems.

We would not be able to get a 100% accurate reflection of Maria. If anything, we’d only be able to replicate it via artificial intelligence. We would have to take into consideration of Maria’s mannerisms and wide variety of responses to the world around her.

PSYCHOLOGY/ETHICS AND MORAL TEACHINGS:

With all of the technological advancements made in human history, the capability of transferring organic consciousness into a mechanical device is nonexistent. We might be able to replicate states of consciousness, but we would have to teach AI and code human ethics and morals. In this case, we could make an attempt in replicating Maria’s consciousness to a certain extent. We don’t know a whole lot of Maria’s characteristics other than the fact that she mattered tremendously to both Shadow and Gerald.

The problem here would be that we’d lack a ration and irrational response of decision making of the individual. What we think that we might know of a person might be different from them being right then and there as they respond to the phenomenon. If anything, we wouldn’t have Maria’s internal thinking and logic. Everything that would be coded would not be Maria’s true thoughts, it would be an assumed thought of the AI and/or programmer.

There is no guarantee that the AI will possess every thought and feeling that Maria might have had when transferring her consciousness. In order to get that, we’d have to do extensive psychological research of Maria’s response to every situation in a controlled environment. This would have to be monitored 24/7. The Maria program would have to relearn everything about herself on top of learning culturally acceptable ethics and morals depending on the environment she was raised in.

If this is the case, then Shadow would have to be habilitated into having the same—or nearly the same—mannerisms that Maria would have had if having her consciousness uploaded into his mind. And if she were still a child, then that would take longer. A child is still in the process of knowing themselves and their identity. Because we would only have a secondary source of Maria’s characteristics, we would lack internal feelings of her growing up.

CLOSING STATEMENT:

It’s safer to assume that everything that Shadow has done in his life are his own thoughts and feelings. Shadow is meant to be perceived as his own person. I’m positive that his actions are influenced by Maria and his interactions with the world around him. Most, if not all, of his actions after learning the truth from SA2 are his own. I do not believe that Maria had her consciousness uploaded into Shadow’s mind, but it is a possibility that Gerald thought about it. The problem here is that we might never know. All that we know is that Gerald would have done nearly anything, even using government funding, to save Maria (Windii, 2018).

Most of my thoughts and feelings are told through the perspective of human interactions. We don’t know enough of Shadow’s physiology in order to make a true comparison. Until we learn more about Gerald and Maria’s characteristics, I think that it’s safe to say that this is more of a hypothetical scenario that needs more information.

I hope this answers your question, my dear!❤️✨

SOURCES:

PNAS, 2012: https://www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/pnas.1201895109

Houzel, 2009: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2776484/

Ted-ED, 2023: https://youtu.be/2DWnvx1NYUA

Windii, 2018: http://info.sonicretro.org/Sonic_Adventure_2_-_The_Truth_of_50_Years_Ago...

Here’s a great text from the National Institute of Health made that talks about neurogenics: https://www.ninds.nih.gov/health-information/public-education/brain-basics/brain-basics-life-and-death-neuron

[mymultifandommess18]

20x08 Monologues

The human brain contains roughly 100 billion neurons alone these neurons would only allow us to retain about as much information as a flash drive, fortunately for us our neurons connect and combine creating a web that exponentially increases the brains storage capacity. In fact this process creates so much space that we can store the equivalent of 3 million hours of video content , so why can't we remember everything we tried to commit to memory?

Our brains are constantly adapting to the present moment our brains can override information we no longer use with newer more relevant ideas, our brains make these decisions for us whether we like it or not. They help us hold on to the things that matter and make space for whatever the future may hold.

[bpod-bpod]

Big Brained

Humans have the largest brain relative to their size of any creature, and the most complex with 100 billion neurons, each capable of having up to 15,000 connections. How our brains evolved that complexity wasn’t clear, but scientists have now identified a gene that might explain why. The gene called ARHGAP11B, is unique to humans and is crucial for the development of the neocortex – the brain region involved in higher-order functions like cognition and sensory perception. Studying how the neocortex evolved is challenging, but the development of organoid technology has opened doors. Researchers created ‘artificial brains’ from both human and chimpanzee stem cells. By adding ARHGAP11B to the chimpanzee brain organoids (areas highlighted in green), they found an increase in brain stem cells that drive growth and neurons involved with heightened mental capabilities. This suggests that ARHGAP11B played a crucial role in the evolution of the brain from our ancestors to modern humans.

Written by Sophie Arthur

Image from work by Jan Fischer, Eduardo Fernández Ortuño and Fabio Marsoner, and colleagues

Max Planck Institute of Molecular Cell Biology and Genetics, Dresden, Germany

Image originally published with a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)

Published in EMBO Reports, September 2022

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