The human brain, running on peanut butter, Oreo cookies, and chicken noodle soup, is amazingly more powerful and efficient than the most advanced supercomputers, such as Oak Ridge National Laboratory’s Frontier.
Humans are Designed to operate at an estimated 1 exaflop (10 to the 18th operations per second), similar to today’s super computers, but the brain achieves this with just 20 watts of power. Compare that to to Frontier’s 20 megawatts—making the brain literally a million times more energy-efficient than the best designs by the mere human race. 🤯
The brain, a hybrid of primarily analog computing power with digital for some limited processes, weighs in at 3 pounds of goo-ware, also comparing favorably to the Frontier supercomputer. Oak Ridge National Laboratory’s Frontier weighs over 1 million pounds (approximately 500 tons), the same as 35 school buses. This total includes its 74 cabinets, each weighing 8,000 pounds, and the extensive cooling infrastructure, such as over 1 million pounds of overhead piping and equipment.
Unlike supercomputers, the brain integrates memory and processing in the same units (neurons), enabling unparalleled efficiency and adaptability through neuroplasticity.
An analog computer, which appears to be old technology in these videos, is actually superior to digital in the human brain – obviously. Analog uses continuously variable physical quantities, such as electrical voltage, mechanical motion, or fluid pressure, to solve problems by creating an analogy to the system being modeled. Unlike digital computers, which use discrete binary data, analog computers operate on continuous data and are particularly suited for real-time simulations and solving differential equations.
The transition from analog to digital computing began with the development of microchips and semiconductors in the 1940s, but the shift became more pronounced in the late 20th century. By the 1990s, digital systems were dominant, and by 2009, major systems like U.S. television broadcasting fully transitioned to digital.
The human brain operates as a hybrid system, incorporating both analog and digital processes. Analog computation occurs in synaptic interactions and continuous signal variations, while digital-like processes appear in neural spikes that resemble binary events. However, the brain is predominantly analog due to its reliance on continuous signals for complex computations.
__________
Ken Kuang
Evolution of the computer from 1940 to 2100
Via TikTok
