Human memory

Nobody really knows what happens when we die. 

On a purely scientific basis, our neurons cease to work so we cannot experience anything: we just cease to exist.  Some estimates put the brain memory size as 2.5 million gigabytes, which is huge.

What amazes me are the maps we have in our heads (at least in mine!). One technique I use to get to sleep is to go from A to B on a journey. It is fascinating what is there.  I have a mental image of many of all the places I have been to. Some of these must be very old.  Also, it is surprising how a snippet of music triggers a memory.  You wonder what else lurks there waiting to be triggered. I guess one day, we will understand how the brain memory is so huge and efficient and make AI based on this.

Others with a religious persuasion believe something of "us" survives after we die.

The truth is nobody really knows. I am sure those with a deep faith (whatever their religion) will have faith that what they believe will be correct.

Amazing fact - human brains

Yesterday, I read that the capacity of the human brain has been estimated as 2.5 million gigabytes, which is huge.  When you think of a lifetime of memories it has to be enormous. 

It makes our computer memories look tiny by comparison. I wonder if they will work out how to create artificial memories as large one day? Imagine being able to store this much data!  If possible, perhaps we could have "add on" memories to store, for example, a new language.

You could imagine that memory research based on neural networks (much like the human brain) is rich for exploration. I could imagine that in 50 years' time huge memories might be possible making those of today look tiny.  I imagine that the US and Chinese governments are already working on this.

Imagine the computing power of these mega-computers working in parallel. Frightening.

Memories - NOT amateur radio

Something just occurred to me. We assume time passes from the past to the future. and that we remember things in the past.  Altogether I can recall about 200 things from before the age of 5 as can my wife.  Many cannot.

What if this is all an illusion?  Perhaps every time we wake we think we have lived in the past but our brains have a finite memory that is in the here and now and not in the past? What I am wondering is time really there at all? We think we have a past, present and future, but this could all be an illusion.

In the world of quantum mechanics we have come to realise that things are stranger than we think. There is so much we do not know.

All we can do is keep an open mind and realise our brainpower is very limited. I wonder what our memory capacity has been estimated as? I imagine it must be well in the TB region and probably much much bigger.

UPDATE 1230z:  Googled it!  Estimated as 2.5 million Gigabytes. Huge! I wonder what the biggest super-computers in the world have by way of memory. As memory increases I wonder what will be possible in 20 years' time.

Short-term memory - NOT amateur radio

 Not sure if this is old age or another artifact of my 2013 stroke, but my short-term memory can be poor. When I record the solar indices, I often have to go back and recheck the figures.

Memory costs - NOT amateur radio

It is amazing how inexpensive memory now is. Just now, I ordered a 32GB flash drive for just £5.49. We can expect in 10 years this memory will seem small: it would not surprise me if 1TB costs under £10 in 10 years.

Memory costs - NOT amateur radio

Amazon is selling Sandisk Ultra 128GB micro SD cards for £13.99. A few years ago this would have been unheard of. 

Imagine what memory will cost in 2032!

Memories - NOT amateur radio

At breakfast my wife and I were counting up how many walks we had been on this odd year. We keep a record each month. At one point she said a figure and I said she had miscalculated. Without a recording, we can never be sure who was wrong. 

This makes me wonder what other memories may be wrong. Memory is an odd thing: as I said some weeks ago, we think we remember things in the past, but it is entirely possible time is a human construct and each day is new with memories we think we have. This is getting too heavy!

Time and memories - illusions? - NOT amateur radio

In the last century, our views of physics were radically changed by Einstein and then quantum physics. Things we had believed in for centuries required new ways of thinking. One wonders what our world view will be like in the next century. You can almost hear them saying,"did they really believe that?".

I wonder about time and memory. In our minds we wake up each day with our understanding of the passage of time and the assumption that our (fading) memories are as old as us. It is entirely possible that this is an illusion and each day is unique and the memories we think we have are illusions too. I have already discussed the mystery of human consciousness.

No, in 100 years' time our whole world view could be totally different.

Joining the dots - NOT amateur radio

Maybe this is another after-effect of my stroke 5 years ago. Perhaps it is another artefact of getting older!

Yesterday we had tree surgeons in and I could have sworn blind that one said tea with one sugar and the other tea with 2 sugars, My wife said they both wanted one sugar. The simple fact is I cannot rely on my memory. It is almost as if my brain fills in the dots and sometimes this is wrong.

Memory - getting ever less expensive

It is fascinating to see the price of PC and camera memory getting lower and lower and the capacity increasing. Only a few years ago we thought a 1GB SD card was amazing. Now you can get 128GB (at least) on a mini SD card at quite respectable prices.

Ten years from now I expect we will be used to 1-2TB mini SD cards and think how did we manage in 2017? I recall the hard drive on my first PC was 0.5GB and we thought that was massive.

UPDATE 2035z: You can already buy a 512GB SD card!!