How much bandwidth can your nerves handle?

[PrinceofLowLight]

Forgive me if I'm totally thinking about this the wrong way, but how much information can your nerves carry? Is it comparable to the cables we have currently? Better? Worse?

In a related question, is the idea of mind/machine interfaces reasonable or is uploading a program into your head just a total fantasy?

[UltraViolence83]

I don't think it's a good idea to compare nerves with cables. Biological systems are different than artificial ones. I think cables are much faster, though I'm not too sure.

Well, they hooked up an eel brain to a hockey puck-sized machine and the brain moved it around, so I would assume this can be done. The only way I see you're going to "upload" a program into your head is if you have a third hemisphere, so to speak, of a computer wired to your brain so you can be interfaced with it and "talk" to the machine. Then you have to worry about viruses...in/close to your BRAIN even!


Hey, if you're into cyberpunk shit, go check out the websites on the RPG Shadowrun. I forget which, but there's one that deals with the theoretical ups and downs of having "wired" people mingling with the rest of society.

[Yogi]

One neuron can carry one action potential every 5 miliseconds. That's 200 bits per second per neuron. Not sure how many of them are in a nerve.

[Shinova]

One neuron can carry one action potential every 5 miliseconds. That's 200 bits per second per neuron. Not sure how many of them are in a nerve.

That's slower than what a microchip does though, is it?

[Rye]

There are several nerve-machine machines about now. They work by receiving a nerve message and then you teach your own brain to send that message when you want your prosthetic arm to move up say, or a cursor on the screen to move left.

I don't think we've got a one-size-fits-all method of communicating electronically with the brain though, i would predict that at several decades away probably, but i do believe it would be possible.

[NapoleonGH]

One neuron can carry one action potential every 5 miliseconds. That's 200 bits per second per neuron. Not sure how many of them are in a nerve.

That's slower than what a microchip does though, is it?

this is slightly flawed in that your brain doesnt have to send commands in binary. Say a command is to move a finger, if it was in binary you would require several bits per part of this command, wiht a neuron you only need one signal that would represent a whole lot of zeros and ones if it were in binary.

[GrandMasterTerwynn]

Forgive me if I'm totally thinking about this the wrong way, but how much information can your nerves carry? Is it comparable to the cables we have currently? Better? Worse?

In a related question, is the idea of mind/machine interfaces reasonable or is uploading a program into your head just a total fantasy?

The problem with equating a digital computer to the brain is that the brain bears very little resemblance to a digital computer. It would be much more comparable to an analog computer assembled by an idiot child. Information is conveyed by the rate of fire between neurons, and the intensity of fire and timing of each burst of activity.

This tends to complicate mind/machine interfaces a bit, as my brain is wired somewhat differently from your brain, which would be wired up rather differently from the person in the next room. A mind/machine interface is doable, but you need technology that can continuously record and adapt to the purely analog data flow going on in the brain. So you'd need the digital side, which stores all data in standard digital formats. Then you'd need to convert it to the analog format the user's brain is using, and tickle the right sets of neurons at the right time in order to get them to see, say, a video of their newborn nephew . . . rather than getting them to . . . say, go into violent convulsions and die.

[kojikun]

Neurons and nerve cells can send multiple signals simultaneously.

[Queeb Salaron]

Hey, if you're into cyberpunk shit, go check out the websites on the RPG Shadowrun. I forget which, but there's one that deals with the theoretical ups and downs of having "wired" people mingling with the rest of society.

I fucking LOVE that game. I didn't think anyone but me and my brother played it anymore...

[UltraViolence83]

I must confess I've never played the pen-and-paper RPG, I've played the GREAT SNES version. DOWNLOAD THE ROM, you won't regret it dude. There are some MUDs about, too, but I never really got into them.



I'm not one for most people being "wired". However...I like the idea of a few individuals hooked up to computers. Like Lobot or something, computer-liasons to aid governments/companies in the higher aspects of buisiness. In my sci-fi stories, they use cyborgs in large military ships as computer liason officers; they're essentially the ship's computer's will and mind. There's also a character I'm thinking about writing a story about: He wa born severely mentally retarded...His family are noble and thus rich, so they had a cybernetic computer hooked up inside his skull to replace his nearly absent and atrophied cognitive/logic centers. It made him as-or-above intelligent as another man, but his line of thinking is very mechanical and has the telltale signs of machine logic. He's also an avid chess player and piloter of sports aircraft.

[Enforcer Talen]

Hey, if you're into cyberpunk shit, go check out the websites on the RPG Shadowrun. I forget which, but there's one that deals with the theoretical ups and downs of having "wired" people mingling with the rest of society.

I fucking LOVE that game. I didn't think anyone but me and my brother played it anymore...

I own the gurps version.

[Queeb Salaron]

I must confess I've never played the pen-and-paper RPG, I've played the GREAT SNES version. DOWNLOAD THE ROM, you won't regret it dude. There are some MUDs about, too, but I never really got into them.

They're coming out with a boardgame, too, called Shadowrun Duels. Go here and check it out.