Is it true that there are a greater number of neuro pathways in our brain than atoms in the universe???

Answer 1

There is a greater number of possible neuron interconnections in a human brain than atoms in the universe. Say you've got 10^10 neurons and each can be connected to 5000 other neurons. Both these figures are conservative. Then there are 10^10C5000 possible wiring schemes. This is a huge number compared with the 10^80 or so atoms in the observable universe. But the number of actual pathways, not possible ones, is only about 5E13 in the example given. I said the figures are conservative. According to Ray Kurzweil, there are about 10^16 neuron-neuron interconnections in your brain. This is approximately the number of bits of information your memory can hold. Within a decade we'll easily be able to make hard drives with this sort of storage capacity. You'll be able to make a back-up of your personality.

Answer 2

we don't necessarily know how many atoms there are in the universe. sure, we might know the mass [of a solar system], but we don't know how many atoms that mass is comprised of

also, atoms are of a definite size. more can fit in the universe than can possibly fit on something as small as Earth, much less the head of a human

i think a better statement would be that we have less informatino on the neuro pathways in our brains than we do about the universe. the same can be said about how we know more about the moon than we do about our own ocean.

Answer 3

sure you're good that there might want to be extra atoms contained in the universe than a google. A google is a a million with one hundred zeros after it and that i'm thoroughly particular that there are extra atoms than that contained in the universe. i'm sorry to allow you to already know this,inspite of the indisputable fact that the diameter if the universe is more suitable than what you've written down,because if we are very nearly 14 billion basic years from the centre of the universe then one can assume that there might want to be and opposite equivalent to this way.sure!that can make the diameter of the universe a minimum of 28 billion basic years throughout,and we are no the position close to the periphery so it must be higher than my ascertain too.we extremely do not understand precisely how massive the universe is.

Answer 4

Everyone seems to be missing the point that there can be a lot more pathway variations connecting sites than there are actual sites. So you probably wind up with some weird factorial calcs involving really big numbers, which maybe exceed the estimated number of atoms in the visible universe.

As to the truth of it, who the hell knows.

Answer 5

Neurons are made up of atoms; so they are included in the number of atoms in the universe. That is, your little grey cells are a subset of the universe; so they cannot be more than the universe.

Give it some thought.

Answer 6

Since each of those neural pathways is made up of around a million atoms, that would be kind of hard.

Answer 7

No. Neurons are made of atoms, so how could there be more atoms in your head than in the rest of the universe?

Answer 8

not by a long shot. the universe is a BIG place

Answer 9

yes

Answer 10

I would have to say I don't think so.