<p>Neurons have a refractory period, meaning that they are rate limited (see Kandel et al., Principles of Neural Science). As the demand on working memory increases, more neurons need to be working in synchrony (Vogel &amp; Luck, 2013 ...). The human brain is characterized by gyri, compared to the flat surface of the mouse brain. This evolutionary adaption is believed to reflect a biological strategy to maximize the brain use inside the skull. However, brain size does not correlate with intelligence. The density of white matter fibers, however, sometimes do. An increase of grey matter also reflects knowledge, in taxi drivers for example. (However, it is also known that more efficient processing requires less neurons. See the documentary on Vanessa Mae for an example).</p>

<p>If a human being had 6 GB RAM, you would have to take into account the cycle speed, swap speed, etc. This would reflect an autistic alien being capable of rendering roughly 12 hours of music all at once.</p>

CC BY-SA 3.0
2016-07-28T22:51:41.487Z
2016-07-28T22:51:41.487Z
noumenal
<p>Doing this sort of comparison is very difficult.  </p>

<p>First, the brain is not digital by any stretch of the imagination, it is <a href="http://theness.com/neurologicablog/index.php/is-the-brain-analog-or-digital/" rel="nofollow">highly analog</a>.  Computers, on the other hand, are digital (binary, specifically).  So doing a calculation measurement on a brain is hard to begin with.</p>

<p>Second, the way they handle tasks is very different.  Computers are designed to carry out individual, complex tasks in a <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parallel_computing#Background" rel="nofollow">stepwise manner</a>.  Brains, on the other hand, are designed to do an enormous number of simpler tasks <a href="https://www.dnalc.org/view/1194-Brain-as-Parallel-Processor.html" rel="nofollow">in parallel</a>.  So an individual task for a brain might be slower, but that is because the brain is doing a lot of other stuff at the same time, and only a small portion of the total "processing power" is available to individual tasks.</p>

<p>Third, their architectures are organized to do completely different tasks.  Modern computers are <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Central_processing_unit#Structure_and_implementation" rel="nofollow">largely designed</a> to do mathematical calculations on binary numbers, integers, and/or floating-point numbers.  Processors are largely designed around doing these sorts of calculations (and moving memory around).  Brains, on the other hand, are pretty bad at those sorts of calculations, and don't seem to have anything equivalent to moving blocks of memory around (the brain has no such thing as "RAM").  Brains are much better at fuzzy (non-binary) operations like <a href="http://bigthink.com/endless-innovation/humans-are-the-worlds-best-pattern-recognition-machines-but-for-how-long" rel="nofollow">pattern matching</a>, things that computers are really bad at.  </p>

<p>So it isn't that computers are faster than brains, they aren't.  It is that brains and computers are optimized for different sorts of tasks, and they do those tasks in different ways.</p>

CC BY-SA 3.0
2016-07-20T20:37:42.187Z
2016-07-20T22:28:26.767Z
2016-07-20T22:28:26.767Z
TheBlackCat
<p>We can't compute (speaking of some of the functions a computer can perform ) as fast as a computer. Where does this shortcoming stem from- working memory or clock frequency perhaps comparable to the firing frequency of neurons- in this analogy? I have come across that the conscious mind can hold only about 40 bits(or other similar, small numbers) at a time. So what all could I accomplish given I had access to say 6 GB of RAM?
Note: Please consider this analogy even if it's remotely applicable. </p>

CC BY-SA 3.0
2016-07-20T14:20:29.150Z
Hi Uday, welcome to cogsci.SE!  You assume the answer to your question in your first sentence--can you cite any evidence that the human brain is not as fast as a computer to do any specific type of calculation?  The work that a brain does, and the work that a computer does, are very different, so in order to compare you'd need to start by finding an operation they both do.
Krysta
CC BY-SA 4.0
2018-06-30T23:56:15.827Z
Possible duplicate of [The computer model of the brain](https://psychology.stackexchange.com/questions/19983/the-computer-model-of-the-brain)
Arnon Weinberg
<measurement><theoretical-neuroscience>
Human brain v/s computer: speed comparison?
Uday Pratap Saroj
# Human brain v/s computer: speed comparison?

(Asked by: username_0 on 2016-07-20)

We can't compute (speaking of some of the functions a computer can perform ) as fast as a computer. Where does this shortcoming stem from- working memory or clock frequency perhaps comparable to the firing frequency of neurons- in this analogy? I have come across that the conscious mind can hold only about 40 bits(or other similar, small numbers) at a time. So what all could I accomplish given I had access to say 6 GB of RAM?
Note: Please consider this analogy even if it's remotely applicable.

**Tags:** measurement, theoretical-neuroscience

> **Comments:**
> **username_1**: Hi Uday, welcome to cogsci.SE!  You assume the answer to your question in your first sentence--can you cite any evidence that the human brain is not as fast as a computer to do any specific type of calculation?  The work that a brain does, and the work that a computer does, are very different, so in order to compare you'd need to start by finding an operation they both do.  
> **username_2**: Possible duplicate of [The computer model of the brain](https://psychology.stackexchange.com/questions/19983/the-computer-model-of-the-brain)  

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## 2 answers

### Answer by username_4 on 2016-07-20. Score: 2 | Accepted answer

Doing this sort of comparison is very difficult.

First, the brain is not digital by any stretch of the imagination, it is [highly analog](http://theness.com/neurologicablog/index.php/is-the-brain-analog-or-digital/). Computers, on the other hand, are digital (binary, specifically). So doing a calculation measurement on a brain is hard to begin with.

Second, the way they handle tasks is very different. Computers are designed to carry out individual, complex tasks in a [stepwise manner](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parallel_computing#Background). Brains, on the other hand, are designed to do an enormous number of simpler tasks [in parallel](https://www.dnalc.org/view/1194-Brain-as-Parallel-Processor.html). So an individual task for a brain might be slower, but that is because the brain is doing a lot of other stuff at the same time, and only a small portion of the total "processing power" is available to individual tasks.

Third, their architectures are organized to do completely different tasks. Modern computers are [largely designed](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Central_processing_unit#Structure_and_implementation) to do mathematical calculations on binary numbers, integers, and/or floating-point numbers. Processors are largely designed around doing these sorts of calculations (and moving memory around). Brains, on the other hand, are pretty bad at those sorts of calculations, and don't seem to have anything equivalent to moving blocks of memory around (the brain has no such thing as "RAM"). Brains are much better at fuzzy (non-binary) operations like [pattern matching](http://bigthink.com/endless-innovation/humans-are-the-worlds-best-pattern-recognition-machines-but-for-how-long), things that computers are really bad at.

So it isn't that computers are faster than brains, they aren't. It is that brains and computers are optimized for different sorts of tasks, and they do those tasks in different ways.


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### Answer by username_3 on 2016-07-28. Score: 1

Neurons have a refractory period, meaning that they are rate limited (see Kandel et al., Principles of Neural Science). As the demand on working memory increases, more neurons need to be working in synchrony (Vogel & Luck, 2013 ...). The human brain is characterized by gyri, compared to the flat surface of the mouse brain. This evolutionary adaption is believed to reflect a biological strategy to maximize the brain use inside the skull. However, brain size does not correlate with intelligence. The density of white matter fibers, however, sometimes do. An increase of grey matter also reflects knowledge, in taxi drivers for example. (However, it is also known that more efficient processing requires less neurons. See the documentary on Vanessa Mae for an example).

If a human being had 6 GB RAM, you would have to take into account the cycle speed, swap speed, etc. This would reflect an autistic alien being capable of rendering roughly 12 hours of music all at once.


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