How connected are we to each other?
If humans are part of a larger computing system, what is the bandwidth between individual humans compared with the amount of connections we have in the brain?
Early Conclusions:
The amount of total input is probably much less than 1e7bits/sec which is equal to the communication bandwidth of roughly 100 neurons. We are incredibly isolated compared with the amount of connections in our heads.
For output, speaking is between 50bits/sec and 39bits/sec
I don’t know how to measure information that is coded like our language is
Input Bandwidth ~1e7bit/sec (bits/sec, bits/joule)
Video: 1e7bits/sec
.1 - 10 images per second, 1 million connections in the optic nerve, or 1 million pixels
8.75mb/s Estimate for visual bandwidth: Calculating speed of sight
Audio: 1e5bit/s
44khz sampling frequency (cd quality audio)
8bit per sampling (mono)
4.4e4*8=352,000 bits/sec
The cochlear nerve bundle has around 30,000 fibers. Given the typical firing rate of neurons to be around 1000x per second, this puts a maximum transfer rate of 30Mb/s.
From <https://www.quora.com/How-much-bandwidth-does-each-human-sense-consume-relatively-speaking>
1e5 bits/sec information in a cell phone call. 100kb/sec
All other senses: 1e5bit/sec
Smell, taste, touch,
https://www.quora.com/How-much-bandwidth-does-each-human-sense-consume-relatively-speaking
For comparison, how many neurons is that?
1 neuron is: 6bits at 10hz 10000 synapses = 6*10*10000=600000 6e5bits/sec
10mb/sec estimated input to brain. 10e6/6e5=16.6667 17 neurons worth of possible connection to others.
Total bandwidth of the brain: 1e16bits 1e16/1e6=1E10
The brain is 1e10 times more connected than we are to each other
Output Bandwidth
Very likely to be less than the ability to absorb information.
- Speaking
50b/s with an upper bound of 100bps http://150.162.46.34:8080/icassp2017/pdfs/0005625.pdf
39 bits/s https://advances.sciencemag.org/content/5/9/eaaw2594
- Writing, drawing
- In my experience typing is half the speed of speaking.
- Moving
Next steps:
- Get estimates for the output bandwidth of speaking
- Look up information contained in different languages, julia knows about paper.
