The reason I ask this is because the human brain operates by sending electrical impuses. So If the brain imagines something using many millions of electrical impulses at the same time then that must be fastert than light.
2006-10-31 23:46:32 · 27 answers · asked by Anonymous in Science & Mathematics ➔ Physics
I think that thoughts are quantum super positions of space time geometries and the electric circuit model of the brain is way off.
Read Shadows of the Mind by Roger Penrose for more.
2006-10-31 23:51:30 · answer #1 · answered by Anonymous · 1⤊ 0⤋
The human brain doesn't really operate by sending electrical impulses. A nerve cell firing is a process involving the exchange of sodium and potassium ions across the cell membrane. Between nerves, impulses are transmitted chemically via neurotransmitters. The speed of propagation of an impulse within sensory neurons is about 5 - 25 m / s. That's quite a bit slower than the speed of light. Now, even if many things are happening at the same time, that doesn't mean you can add up their speeds. If there are 10 cars on a highway all going 50 mph, does that mean that, together, they are going 500 mph, and therefore everybody gets where they're going 10 times faster?
2006-11-01 00:04:12 · answer #2 · answered by τεκνον θεου 5 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Nothing can move in space faster than light and electricity. All the electrical activity of our brain takes place at the speed with which electrical signal travel trough their circuits. At it’s best brain is so finely designed and its circuitry is so elaborate that its function is astoundingly fast and efficient. The actual workings of human brain, I need not say, is a mystery. Its powers are still beyond our full understanding.
If for example I ask you to imagine something from you past life, something not very special just something that you saw long time ago. I for example can imagine the colour of the shirt of my primary school teacher. Now, when will this be likely for you remember that thing again - may be tomorrow, may be in ten year's time, or may be never again. There is something mysterious about our mind. It is not all logical. Things sometimes just pop into our mind. We can think creatively and learn intuitively.
There is something about our brain that is quite literally out of this world. I believe that we can communicate instantaneously with other things in existence. The question is not how can we use our mind, which is the topic of contemporary science. The question is do we believe that we can move faster than anything with our mind? And then are we willing to do just that? We have not started asking questions like this so far, because we simply do not know how.
We, for example, have a need to communicate with each other. Presently we do this by using mobile phones and computer etc. Then one day this need of our mind will discover new uses of our brain that would allow us to get ourselves free from all the dependency of all the hardware equipment that is in our current use.
Physical world is processional. The processes of the world as we know it are interlinked. The nature is existence itself is standalone, free and instantaneous. There is existence within the intervals of time when we move faster than the speed of light. We can think things into existence. This is big claim, but just think of something … now try to unthink that thing. This is impossible. What you have created, hope was not a monster, will be there somewhere forever. You can forget it but there is always a possibility for you to rekindle is. I must stop here other wise I will go on and on. Good call!
2006-11-01 03:22:22 · answer #3 · answered by Shahid 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋
I'd have thought it would be slower, for 2 reasons.
1) The brain uses both electrical and chemical impulses - for the chemical transmitter, molecules of whatever chemical must physically pass from one neuron to another - no way is this faster than light!
2) The brain uses both electrical and chemical impulses (hmm, deja vu there) and electricity moves at a maximum of one seventh the speed of light - therefore and electrical charge jumping across a synapse would still, definitely be slower than light.
Your point about millions of connections being used to imagine something doesn't (in my opinion) make any difference - if the brain used light for neurons to communicate it'd still require millions of connections for an idea to form, but the connections would be faster.
2006-10-31 23:54:34 · answer #4 · answered by Chris W 2 · 1⤊ 0⤋
Perhaps the other answers are looking at the question from the wrong side of the mirror...the whole universe is simply a construct of my mind (you can't disprove this - partly because I don't believe you exist) and therefore I have decided what the speed of light is - so my mind determines the speed of light, so to answer your question (that my mind created) I say YES the thought processes of a the human brain can be faster than the speed of light - if I want it to be...
As an aside if the human brain were really faster than light it would make for an interesting universe, would we not live in a constant strobe effect universe?
2006-11-01 00:18:44 · answer #5 · answered by One Eyed Owl 3 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Isn't that like saying if all 500 people walked together at 1 mile an hour together, they would travel as fast as one person in Jumbo jet that normally travels at 500mph.
Its true the same total distance is travelled per person but whether this is more useful or not is another question. When you talk about parallel processing. Yes, computers with thousands of slow processors can do jobs faster than smaller numbers of very fast processors, but only on certain types of tasks, i.e. those that can be highly parallizable.
The brain is a highly complex, slow but highly distributed processor. And is very fast compare to computers at image recognition, but woefully slow for any mathematical type of calculation. So the answer is that it really it depends on the problem.
2006-11-01 03:33:28 · answer #6 · answered by Chris C 2 · 0⤊ 0⤋
I dont see how you could possibly arrive at that conclusion. Thats like saying if a million people use cars then we'll be faster than a plane.
To clarify this once more - nothing can go faster than the speed of light. The distance and electrical impulse has to travel is so minute that is it for all intents and purposes instantaneous.
2006-10-31 23:53:47 · answer #7 · answered by Stuart T 3 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Nothing is faster than light - including electrical impulses. Having things happening in parallel can increase throughput, but each element is still happening at relatively modest speeds.
It's like asking whether, if the entire population of India was walking at 4mph, then between them they'd be walking at 4 billion miles an hour - or six times the speed of light!
2006-10-31 23:59:22 · answer #8 · answered by gvih2g2 5 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Not even close.
While some solutions in QED predict particles traveling faster than light (e.g., Hawking radiation at the event horizon of a black hole), the speed of light is, for all practical purposes, the speed limit of the universe. The electro-chemical processes that take place in the human brain are quite speedy by our own standards, but relatively slow compared to the speed of light.
It's good to ask such questions though!
2006-11-01 00:11:17 · answer #9 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
you have to be careful with this reasoning. the nerve impulses are technically electronic impulses, but these are created by potential differences in ionic concentrations on the inside and outside of nerve cells. because the 'pulse' is transmitted by different ions being released in and out of the cell then it would be hard to believe this movement is as quick as the speed of light waves - so the answer to you questions is no.
however, the complex network of neurones that make up the brain and control thought is so extensive and intertwined it can process on a massive scale, giving a appreciation of such speed
2006-10-31 23:57:23 · answer #10 · answered by djessellis 4 · 0⤊ 0⤋