How does the human brain differ from a computer? The central processing unit is the “brain” of the computer. What is the brain of the computer called?

To keep the body in good shape. But not only muscles require periodic tension. Neural pathways and connections in brain should also get their dose of work sometimes, and today we will talk about how to implement this. So... five basic cognitive functions: - Memory - Attention - Language - Visual-spatial skills - Reasoning To maintain performance brain In optimal form, it is important to stimulate all five areas. And here are five simple exercises with which you can...

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– In the troubles of ancient Gaul and Thrace
Russian hackers are to blame!
Riots in Madrid, in Paris
They're calling today!
In Krasnostennaya to the chimes
Trump was made president!
They are terrorists, enemies!..

- Gentlemen, you have brains...

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And your philosopher. Taylor's well-tuned industrial "choreography" - his "system" as he loved it call- entrepreneurs throughout the country, and, over time, the whole world, adopted it. Manufacturers in search of the ultimate... "2001: A Space Odyssey." She makes such a touching and eerie impression precisely because of her emotional reaction computer to dismember him brain: HAL's despair growing as his circuits fade, the childish touching way he...

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A person is a self-regulating system. For clarity, let's imagine that brain person - computer, and psyche – programs installed on this computer. Every computer initially has some default programs that activate it. So a person receives a set of such programs at birth - in science they called instincts (instinct of self-preservation, procreation, etc.). Such programs are laid down...

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A watch that knows the time to the second at any moment. Third, looking at any object, calls its dimensions are accurate to two to three millimeters. The fourth speaks 24 languages, including a couple of invented ones...” A system has been created in Germany that allows you to type on a screen computer with the help of thought. This notion was recently supported by published research results brain Einstein. Regions brain, usually associated with mathematical ability, are enlarged and do not overlap...

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In 1967, neurophysiologist John Lilly wrote the book “Programming and Metaprogramming of the Human Biocomputer,” in which he combined his research on the neurophysiology of the cerebral cortex brain with design ideas computers. A program, as defined by Dr. Lilly, is a set of internally compatible instructions for processing signals, generating information, remembering both, and preparing messages; requires...

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... (Giulio Tononi), who is engaged in a project to create a “cognitive computer", the task of creating computer, as “powerful” and flexible as a relatively small brain mammals, a much more difficult task than it might seem. ... supercomputer designs will take over the hardware of the future "cognitive" computer" The task before them is truly difficult: computer must be able to brain, work with multiple parallel and constantly changing data streams, ...

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Who are destined to die at an early age, before ten years of age, center brain not being built. In other children it is recreated before the age of five, and at the age of five it is connected to computer The determinant that guides him through life. It sets him up for... A person's qualifier. After the center brain fully formed, the Determinant includes it in its work, connecting it to its computer. And then the child is monitored through computer, which records physical condition, thoughts and...

Every human brain is something special, an incredibly complex miracle of nature, created through millions of years of evolution. Today our brain is often called a real computer. And this expression is not used in vain.

And today we will try to understand why scientists call the human brain a biological computer, and what interesting facts about him exist.

Why the brain is a biological computer

Scientists call the brain a biological computer for obvious reasons. The brain, like the main processor of any computer system, is responsible for the operation of all elements and nodes of the system. As is the case with RAM, hard drive, video card and other PC elements, the human brain controls vision, breathing, memory and any other process occurring in the human body. He processes the received data, makes decisions and performs all the intellectual work.

As for the “biological” characteristic, its presence is also quite obvious, because, unlike the usual computer equipment, the human brain is biological in origin. So it turns out that the brain is a real biological computer.

Like most modern computers, the human brain has a huge number of functions and capabilities. And we offer some of the most interesting facts about them below:

• Even at night, when our body is resting, the brain does not fall asleep, but, on the contrary, is in a more active state than during the day;
• The exact amount of space or memory that can be stored in the human brain is currently unknown to scientists. However, they suggest that this "biological hard drive» capable of storing up to 1000 terabytes of information;
• The average weight of the brain is one and a half kilograms, and its volume increases, as in the case of muscles, from training. True, in in this case training involves gaining new knowledge, improving memory, etc.;
• Despite the fact that it is the brain that reacts to any damage to the body by sending pain signals to the corresponding parts of the body, it itself does not feel pain. When we feel a headache, it is only pain in the tissues and nerves of the skull.

Now you know why the brain is called a biological computer, which means you have done a little training of your brain. Don't stop there, and systematically learn something new.

About how machine learning can and is already changing our world. Neural networks entangle us more and more tightly, algorithms control our lives: they find books, films, jobs and partners for us, manage investments and develop medicines, learning on their own. Algorithms are like little inquisitive children: they look at us, repeat after us and experiment.

And the most amazing thing is that scientists are already working on the Supreme Algorithm, which will be able to solve any problems even before we formulate them (reminds me of Douglas Adams?), and extract knowledge about everything in the world from data. Curious, isn't it?

How does our brain work and how does it learn?

Canadian psychologist Donald Hebb formulated the learning rule in 1949, which now underlies many artificial neural networks: “neurons that fire together communicate with each other.” The Hebb rule combines ideas from psychology, neurobiology and, interestingly, a considerable amount of speculation. Around the same time, Spanish neuroscientist Santiago Ramon y Cajal conducted the first detailed studies of the brain by staining neurons. He cataloged his observations of how botanists classify new tree species.

By Hebb's time, neuroscientists had a general understanding of how neurons worked, but he was the first to propose a mechanism by which neurons could encode associations. Each concept is represented by a set of neurons. And these neurons, which excite each other, form, in Hebbian terminology, “assemblies of cells.”

Through such assemblies, concepts and memories are represented in the brain. Each ensemble can include neurons from different areas of the brain, and ensembles can intersect. Thus, the cellular ensemble for the concept “leg” includes the ensemble for the concept “foot”, which, in turn, includes ensembles for the image of the foot and the sound of the word “foot”.

Of course this is not true. Our brains are constantly bombarded with sensory input from our senses. transmits many megabytes of sensory data to the brain every second. The brain has no firewall against this onslaught. Brain imaging studies show that even subtle sensory stimuli affect areas of the brain, from low-level sensory areas to parts of the frontal lobe, a high-level region of the brain that is enlarged in humans compared to other primates.

The brain depends on nerve stimuli

Many of these stimuli directly control us. For example, when we look at images, visual details often attract our attention and cause us to look at certain patterns. When we look at a face, our attention automatically switches to the eyes, nose and mouth, subconsciously highlighting them as the most important details. When we walk down the street, our attention is guided by environmental stimuli - the sound of a car horn, the flash of neon lights, the smell of pizza - each of which directs our thoughts and actions, even without us being aware of it.

Even further below the radar of our perception are environmental factors that affect our mood slowly. Seasonal periods of low light are associated with depression. This phenomenon was first described by South African physician Norman Rosenthal shortly after moving from sunny Johannesburg to the gray, northern smell of the United States in the 1970s. The colors of our surroundings also affect us. Despite many hoaxes on this topic, it has been proven that blue and green colors cause a positive emotional response, and red - a negative one. In one example, scientists showed that participants performed worse on an IQ test with red markers than with green or gray markers; Another study found that creativity tests were performed better with a blue background than with a red background.

Body cues can influence behavior as much as the environment, again challenging idealized notions of the superiority of the brain.

Amazing find recent years became the fact that microbes living in the internal organs also take part in determining our emotions. Changing the population of microbes in the intestines by eating bacteria-rich foods or undergoing a so-called fecal transplant can cause anxiety and aggression.

This demonstrates that what happens to the brain is very much intertwined with what happens to the body and environment. There is no causal or conceptual boundary between the brain and its environment. Aspects of cerebral mysticism—the idealized view of the brain as inorganic, hypercomplex, self-sufficient, and autonomous—fall apart when we study up close how the brain works and what it is made of. The integrated involvement of the brain, body, and environment is what separates biological consciousness from the mystical “soul,” and the implications of this distinction are profound.

Most importantly, cerebral mysticism promotes the misconception that the brain is the primary driver of our thoughts and actions. As we seek to understand human behavior, mysticism encourages us to think first about causes in the brain and then beyond the head. This causes us to overestimate the role of the brain and underestimate the role of contexts.

In the criminal justice arena, for example, some authors believe that crimes should be blamed on the criminal's brain. The case of Charles Whitman, who committed one of the first mass shootings in the United States at the University of Texas in 1966, is often cited. Whitman spoke of psychological disturbances that began in the months leading up to the crime, and an autopsy later revealed that a large tumor had grown near the amygdala in his brain, which was affecting his management of stress and emotions. But while brain accusers may argue that Whitman's tumor should be blamed for the crime, the reality is that Whitman's actions were also influenced by other factors: he grew up with an abusive father, suffered through his parents' divorce, was often rejected for jobs, and had access to weapons with military rights. Even the high temperature on the day of the crime (37 degrees Celsius) could have influenced Whitman's aggressive behavior.

Blaming the brain for criminal behavior avoids outdated principles of morality and retribution, but it still ignores the wide network of influences that can contribute to any situation. In the current discussion about violent incidents in the United States, it has become very important to maintain a broad view of the multiple factors at work in relation to an individual: mental health problems, access to weapons, media and social influences all contribute. In other contexts, drug addiction or childhood trauma may also be worth considering. In any case, the idealized view of the brain, which is supposedly to blame for everything, will be short-sighted. It's a combination of the brain, body and environment that works.

Cerebral mysticism has particular relevance to the way our society attempts to cope with the problem of mental illness. Because by broad consensus, mental disorders are defined as disorders of the brain. Proponents of this theory argue that this places psychological problems in the same category as fever or cancer - illnesses that do not cause the social reactions usually associated with psychiatric illnesses. There is even an opinion that the very definition of such diseases as “brain disorders” lowers the barrier at which healthy patients will seek treatment, and this is important.

In other respects, however, reclassifying mental problems as brain disorders can be quite problematic. Patients who attribute mental health problems to intrinsic neurological defects are already stigmatized in their own right. The thought that their brain is imperfect and damaged can be devastating. Biological defects are more difficult to repair than moral ones, and people with mental disorders are often viewed as dangerous or even defective. Attitudes towards schizophrenics and paranoids are not improving from year to year, despite the growth in methods of mitigating the course of their mental states.

Regardless of the social implications, blaming the brain for creating mental illness may be scientifically incorrect in many cases. Although all mental problems involve the brain, underlying factors can be anywhere. In the 19th century, syphilis, sexually transmitted, and pelagra, caused by vitamin B deficiency, were the main causes of the increase in asylum patients in Europe and the United States. A recent study showed that 20% of psychiatric patients have physical abnormalities that may cause or worsen mental conditions; among them are problems with the heart, lungs and endocrine system. Epidemiological studies have found significant associations between the occurrence of mental health problems and factors such as ethnic minority status, being born in an urban area and being born in certain time year. Although these associations are not easily explained, they highlight the role of environmental factors. We must listen to these factors if we want to effectively treat and prevent mental disorders.

At an even deeper level, it is cultural conventions that limit the concept of mental illness in the first place. For only 50 years, homosexuality was classified as a pathology, a deviation, in the authoritative compendium of mental disorders of the American Psychiatric Association. In the Soviet Union, political dissidents were sometimes identified on the basis of psychiatric diagnoses that would horrify most modern observers. However, sexual preferences or the inability to bow to authority in righteous pursuits are psychological traits for which we may well find biological correlates. This does not mean that homosexuality and political dissidence are problems in the head. This means that society, not neuroscience, determines the boundaries of normality that define the categories of mental health.

Cerebral mysticism exaggerates the contribution of the brain to human behavior, and in some cases also paves the way for a great role for the brain in the future of humanity itself. There is increasing talk in technophile circles of “brain hacking” to improve human cognitive abilities. An immediate association arises with hacking some smartphone or government server, but in reality it is more like hacking with a master key. Early examples of "brain hacking" involved destroying parts of the brain, such as in the now defunct procedures that inspired Ken Kesey's One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest (1962). The most advanced modern brain hacks involve surgically implanting electrodes to directly stimulate or read brain tissue. These interventions can restore basic function in patients with severe mobility problems or paralysis—an amazing feat that falls miles short of improving normal abilities. However, this does not stop entrepreneurs like Elon Musk or DARPA from investing in “brain hacking” technologies in the hope of one day creating a superhuman brain and connecting it to a machine.

Is it possible to separate the brain from the body?

Much of this discrepancy is the product of an artificial division between what happens inside and outside the brain. Philosopher Nick Bostrom of the Future of Humanity Institute points out that “the best benefit you can get from brain implants is the same devices outside of the brain that you can use instead of natural interfaces, like the same eyes, to project 100 million bits per second directly into the brain." In fact, such “brain enhancements” are already in our pockets and on our desks, giving us access to enhanced cognitive functions like a powerful calculator and extra memory, without touching the neurons at all. What direct connection of such devices to the brain will add to us, besides irritation, is another question.

In the medical world, early attempts to restore vision to the blind through the use of brain implants quickly moved to less invasive approaches, including retinal replacement. Cochlear implants, which restore hearing in deaf patients, rely on a similar strategy to communicate with the auditory nerve rather than the brain itself. And without taking into account patients who are completely limited in movement, prostheses that restore or improve movement also work as interfaces. To give an amputee control of a powered artificial limb, a technique called "targeted muscle reinnervation" is used, allowing doctors to connect the peripheral nerves of the lost limb to new muscle groups that communicate with the device. To improve motor function in healthy people, exoskeletons are used, which communicate with the brain through indirect but evolutionarily refined channels. In each of these cases, the natural interactions of the brain with the human body help people use prosthetics and form a direct connection between the brain and body.

The most extreme direction in futuristic brain technologies is the desire to achieve immortality through the posthumous preservation of the human brain. Two companies are already offering to extract and preserve the brains of dying “clients” who do not want to rest in peace. The organs are preserved in liquid nitrogen until technology is advanced enough to restore the brain or “download” consciousness into a computer. This desire carries cerebral mysticism to its logical conclusion, fully welcoming the logical fallacy that human life is reduced to the function of the brain and that the brain is only the physical embodiment of the soul, free of meat.

While the pursuit of immortality through brain preservation does little harm to anything beyond a few people's bank accounts, this pursuit also highlights why demystifying the brain is so important. The more we feel that our brains contain our essence as individuals, the more we believe that thoughts and actions simply stem from a piece of meat in our head, the less sensitive we become to the role of society and the environment and the less we care about culture and its resources.

The brain is special not because it represents the essence of us humans, but because it connects us to our environment in a way that no soul could. If we value our own experiences, our experiences and impressions, we must protect and strengthen the many factors that enrich our lives both internally and externally. We are much more than just brains.

This will be quite possible with a computer simulation of the human brain. In the 2030s, nanomachines will be implanted directly into brain, carrying out arbitrary input and output of signals from cells brain. This will create a “full immersion” virtual reality, ... year, setting out to find out if a machine can think. The standard interpretation of the test is: “A person interacts with one computer and one person. Based on the answers to the questions, he must determine with whom he is talking: with...

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Contain an order of magnitude more than usual. And this entire gigantic array of information will change consistently in one working cycle. When in quantum computer one bit changes (it called quantum bit - a qubit), then all the others change in concert with it, and the entire superposition is instantly rearranged. It's like in a "magic" tube, where colored...

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... computer, simultaneously with your partner. After each trial, subjects were told who pressed the button earlier and who later, and at what interval. Scientists found that male couples performed the task better than female couples, but the activity brain... that couples of both sexes performed the task just as well as male partners, but in their brain no consistency was found. The scientists' findings may help explain how the ability to cooperate between humans evolved...

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Or growth. Modern scientific research is getting closer to solving an ancient mystery: the key to it is control over work brain. It is known that exactly brain controls all processes in our body. It's small computer, working according to the program given to it throughout our entire life. But, unfortunately, without our active participation. This program...

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Myopia will be given attention, because basically, long-term work with a monitor leads to the occurrence of this disease these days. computer. A modern city dweller spends most of his life indoors and, working behind a blue screen and with documents,... With constant sedentary work, displacement of the vertebrae and other deformations of the spine occur, which lead to compression of the spinal column. brain, which also negatively affects the functioning of the visual organs. Therefore, during the “five minutes” do not forget and...

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Like the increase in the number of divorces, the migration of families in search of a better life, filling children's leisure time with TV and computer, which replaced everyday contact with parents and weakened the emotional attachment to them. Escapes are frequent due to... the fact that we we call"wildlife". Virtual reality does not give a true idea of ​​the environment and forms a distorted picture of the world in the case when the child is “given away to be raised” computer. Debates about whether it is harmful or beneficial computer for children's development...