It's All You

The mind emerges from the brain. Contemporary neuroscientists and psychologists agree that the mind would not exist without a fully functioning brain. There’s plenty of evidence to support this idea from brain imaging studies and cases of people who have had various diseases and brain traumas. Yet, many people still believe that the mind exists outside of their bodies. One argument posed against the “mind is brain” idea from time to time is that the brain could not possibly store all of our memories. Let’s take a look at this idea and see if it has any merit.

First, let’s take a look at the facts. There are approximately 100 billion neurons in the brain. Each neuron connects with as many as 100,000 other neurons. This makes for one quadrillion total connections in an average brain. Each brain cell fires around 10 times per second so there are 10 quadrillion neural impulses per second! Currently, there are no computers that can process as much information as quickly as the human brain. IBM recently introduced a super computer that can perform 3 quadrillion calculations per second. At this rate, computers may surpass the computational power of the brain in the next decade. We might be able to produce artificial intelligence when that happens.

Maybe now you are getting the idea of how complex the brain is. These numbers are difficult to comprehend. How big is a billion? If you counted to one million at a normal pace, it would take you about 11 days. But, if you counted to one billion, it would take you 30 years! There are an enormous number of brain cells and an even larger number of connections between those cells. When you consider how much information can be stored on computer microchips, it's easy to see how the brain could store all its information in the vastness of its neural connections.

So, why do people resist the idea that the mind is what the brain does? I think it’s a fear people have that there may not be anything beyond ourselves if the mind is contained within the brain. They might also fear that it somehow lessens our place in the universe and diminishes our humanity. The thing is, if the mind is the brain, that in no way rules out anything beyond us. We shouldn’t feel any loss of humanity either. Nature has given us an amazing brain. That's what makes us human.