I just finished writing a book on memory and dementia, and I have some good news and bad news. The good news is that we can do something about dementia. It's easy, straightforward, and we've only started to get a handle on it in the last ten years.
The bad news is that we aren't going to be uploading our brains into computers any time soon.
I know, smart guys in the tech world wander around talking about the singularity, the moment when computer brains will surpass human brains. They're wrong. Using existing technology, computers cannot equal a human brain. Not even close. To reach the power of the two pounds of wet, pink sponge in your head, we would need a thousand times the existing world wide web. All of it, in every country in the world, now a thousand times that computing power.
Why? It's pretty simple.
A computer is based on binary. An on/off switch like a light switch. It's either on or it's off. So a supercomputer is a huge room filled with on/off light switches. It is great for figuring out every move on a chess board or even coming up with a possibly insightful move on a go board, but that doesn't translate into anything human.
A human brain is based on gradients. Like a dimmer switch for a light. You've got on, off, and an infinite variation in between. So the same circuits in the human brain can run a nearly infinite set of programs in parallel.
All those programs in parallel is why Kasparov felt his balls itch when he was playing chess with Deep Blue. Or why the Go master Sedol was holding in a fart and avoiding thinking about his favorite treat while playing AlphaGo. All of those things were happening for the humans. AlphaGo couldn't even move his own go pieces.
For all of us, that means our smart phone may be able to tell us the best information given to it by other humans, but other humans are coming up with that information. Don't ask your smart phone to walk for you, and definitely don't expect your smartphone to repair itself if you drop it in the gutter.
The human brain, in comparison, can compile, process and run multiple information programs at once. That's why you can walk, eat ice cream, and lie to your friend about her new dress all at once. A supercomputer the size of a small city might be able to do one of those things. But your brain can do all of those things and rewire itself almost completely if damaged. There's nothing like it. The human brain isn't like a computer. A human brain is what a computer dreams it could be one day when it grows up.
Don't get me wrong, technology will replace many repetitive jobs in the coming years. But the moment a computer becomes human enough to look like West World is far, far in the future and will require a massive change in how we run computers. Something like quantum computing but at a much higher scale. As for the technological advancements imminent on our horizon, I'm still waiting to see how robot cars deal with Maine winter driving conditions. Having a driverless car in Southern California is like having a houseplant in a greenhouse. Take it outside and give it a little Nor'Easter, and then we'll talk about replacing Maine truckers.
You can find out a lot more about the brain, why dementia is no longer a diagnosis, and how to improve your memory by reading the Dementia Diet (now at both independent ebook outlets and that big river one. What was it now?)
The bad news is that we aren't going to be uploading our brains into computers any time soon.
I know, smart guys in the tech world wander around talking about the singularity, the moment when computer brains will surpass human brains. They're wrong. Using existing technology, computers cannot equal a human brain. Not even close. To reach the power of the two pounds of wet, pink sponge in your head, we would need a thousand times the existing world wide web. All of it, in every country in the world, now a thousand times that computing power.
Why? It's pretty simple.
A computer is based on binary. An on/off switch like a light switch. It's either on or it's off. So a supercomputer is a huge room filled with on/off light switches. It is great for figuring out every move on a chess board or even coming up with a possibly insightful move on a go board, but that doesn't translate into anything human.
A human brain is based on gradients. Like a dimmer switch for a light. You've got on, off, and an infinite variation in between. So the same circuits in the human brain can run a nearly infinite set of programs in parallel.
All those programs in parallel is why Kasparov felt his balls itch when he was playing chess with Deep Blue. Or why the Go master Sedol was holding in a fart and avoiding thinking about his favorite treat while playing AlphaGo. All of those things were happening for the humans. AlphaGo couldn't even move his own go pieces.
For all of us, that means our smart phone may be able to tell us the best information given to it by other humans, but other humans are coming up with that information. Don't ask your smart phone to walk for you, and definitely don't expect your smartphone to repair itself if you drop it in the gutter.
The human brain, in comparison, can compile, process and run multiple information programs at once. That's why you can walk, eat ice cream, and lie to your friend about her new dress all at once. A supercomputer the size of a small city might be able to do one of those things. But your brain can do all of those things and rewire itself almost completely if damaged. There's nothing like it. The human brain isn't like a computer. A human brain is what a computer dreams it could be one day when it grows up.
Don't get me wrong, technology will replace many repetitive jobs in the coming years. But the moment a computer becomes human enough to look like West World is far, far in the future and will require a massive change in how we run computers. Something like quantum computing but at a much higher scale. As for the technological advancements imminent on our horizon, I'm still waiting to see how robot cars deal with Maine winter driving conditions. Having a driverless car in Southern California is like having a houseplant in a greenhouse. Take it outside and give it a little Nor'Easter, and then we'll talk about replacing Maine truckers.
You can find out a lot more about the brain, why dementia is no longer a diagnosis, and how to improve your memory by reading the Dementia Diet (now at both independent ebook outlets and that big river one. What was it now?)
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