[Knight Templar]

it's a pity we're so dumb we don't have omnipotency yet

hear hear!

[Stryke 9]

1. That'd be the 10% devoted to remembering TV programming and microwave burrito heating instructions, no doubt.

2. If we really had a useless 90% in the most significant, complex, and difficult to develop and maintain organ in our bodies, we'd have been extinct long ago. You don't see wolves running around with giant malfunctioning biological air conditioners on their backs for precisely this reason.

3. Since the vast majority of your brain is simply there to connect one neuron to another, and in the form of myelin sheathing (read: fat), and only the very surface is functional brain at all really, there's really nothing else there to use.

4. If you've ever seen an MRI scan or one of those other neural-activity scans, nearly all of that surface gets used at some point. Some of it looks like all the time.

6. Certain pop "scientists" could do with using 10% of their brains, rather than .1%.

[Ashrak]

the 10% comes from at one time we use 10% brainpower but we use all of our brain not at same time dough and if IF we used 90% of brainpower at 1 time we could process information 80% faster we could calculate warp field amplitudes in seconds and the encryption code mentioned in another thread would be a matter of seconds to crack.....

[mikhael]

Originally posted by Ashrak
IF we used 90% of brainpower at 1 time we could process information 80% faster we could calculate warp field amplitudes in seconds and the encryption code mentioned in another thread would be a matter of seconds to crack.....

And your basis for this spurious outburst of speculation is... ?

What the hell is a Warp Field Amplitude?

And do you have any idea how encryption works?

[Stryke 9]

See, with a 1000% brainpower increase, we'd be able to answer these sorts of questions!:D

Though I gotta say, if humans were that much smarter, I at least would get bored fast. I mean, really- if you can solve nearly any problem you can think of fairly quickly and easily, what's to live for? Playing Tetris in your mind? Lifting matches through telekinesis? Shooting bad heroin? I dunno, but it would suck no matter what.

[Kamikaze]

Actually I might enjoy being able to read books I like in a matter of minutes...... (there are people who can read books a page a second, what'll happen with a 1000% increase?)

[Vertigo1]

Personally, I think there is more to the brain than just processing and storage.  The brain is such a complex organ that we have only BEGUN to discover its potential.

Hell, there are things that I can do that I'm sure some of you can't.  For one thing, I can usually tell you what a dog is thinking before they do anything. (no BS!)  Furthermore, I have the odd habit of knowing when severe weather hits nearby.  

About four years ago, I woke up at 3am.  It wasn't really storming outside (wasn't even raining!).  Just a little lightshow that nature was puting on.  SOMETHING told me to turn the television on, so I went into the living room and turned it on.  Sure enough, we were in a tornado warning.  Damn thing touched down only a couple of miles away!  I thought it was a coincidence till it happened again last Saturday.  Freaky, eh?

[Stryke 9]

Sorry to break it to ya, but those people don't read for comprehension. They can reel off good chunks of the book afterward sometimes, but they won't get what it's talking about (if it's got more depth than, say, a checkout-line bestseller) unelss they go reread it more carefully or sit down for a few hours and try to think over what they've memorized. It also doesn't have a high intelligence requirement to do, it's just a memnonic/rapid acquisition thing...

[Vertigo1]

Exactly.  I could read a chapter in a history book in mere minutes, but if you were to ask me questions about it, I'll be like "HUH?!"

[Kamikaze]

Originally posted by Stryke 9
Sorry to break it to ya, but those people don't read for comprehension. They can reel off good chunks of the book afterward sometimes, but they won't get what it's talking about (if it's got more depth than, say, a checkout-line bestseller) unelss they go reread it more carefully or sit down for a few hours and try to think over what they've memorized. It also doesn't have a high intelligence requirement to do, it's just a memnonic/rapid acquisition thing...

Well if we thought at a higher pace (i.e. we can compress those hours of thought to a minute) then it'd solve it, but I doubt humans have that much natural potential. (especially as people are continuing to think less and less, and become more of potatoes than people)

[Stryke 9]

Now here's a scary thought-

If we were all smart, what would be on TV?

[Lonestar]

Ok, to bring this back on a serious note here is my theory.

We humans have a body, Scientists proved, that is meant to live forever. The degredation of our body over the years cannot be accounted for even in the best earth and life conditions. It is true certain unnatural things made by us humans have proven to degrade our body over long periods of time. Anyways, our bodies were designed to live forever, dont beleive me do some research.

This theory being proven by many in the scientific community, brings us to the 10% theory on the use of our brain. What i think scientists mean when saying that is most likely contributed to motor skills. I beleive they think we only use 10% of our brain for motor functions, some go over that with great abilities such as fastest sprinter, genius minds and more.

Another thought of mine is tied to the fact we are meant to live much longer then we currently are. It is proven the farther you go back in history, the lifespan (under normal and natural surroundings) increased greatly. Living over 100yrs was not something special 100 yrs ago or 200 yrs ago in some places, it was a normal occurrence. Only recently in the past 20 or 30 yrs has lifespan greatly decreased. Since our knowledge has increased so has our life expactancy decreased.

So living longer, our bodies not meant to die, brings around the reason why we only use 10% of our brain. We simply cannot live long enough to reach the 100% potential. All we can do is hope we can multiply our 10% through books and passing along teachings to future generations in hopes we can achieve greatness through intelligence.

Basically we use 10% of our brain only because we dont have enough lifetime to actually fill it any further. Imagine if Einstein lived 50 more years? He might of maxed out his brain already, if he lived 20 more years or 50 more years he might have been considered even more genius and our world today would be drastically different.

If you tie religion into this, you can have a great many debates on a variety of possiblities. Fact is no one really knows how much brain we actually use apart from brain functions related to motor skills. We can only assume 5% is motor and another 5% must be thought and perception and other mind boggling things. We can never truely know.

I for one beleive we as humans should be able to live longer and if we did the knowledge and experience achieved would be so great it cld only be compared to Godly. Which brings us to another subject. you know how "the man" keeps you down so to speak. Well maybe this is God's way of keeping "man down" by lowering our life expactancy or knowing we cld do that on our on, in hopes we never achieve his greatness in knowledge. He may be just some alien who scientifically made us then got scared of us and made us suffer with life expectancy in hopes our knwledge can never reach his. Who knows.

[Ulundel]

Originally posted by Stryke 9
Now here's a scary thought-

If we were all smart, what would be on TV?

Only National Geographic 24 hours a day?

[Sesquipedalian]

@ most posts in this thread.

1) All areas of the human brain are used.  

2) "Brainpower" is not a matter of how much bulk is used or available for use, it is a matter of how dense the synapses are between membranes.  Every one of us therefore uses 100% (or close to it) of our "brainpower."  Moreover, the phrase "exercise your brain" is not at all meaningless: that reading and thinking more will increase your "brainpower" is biologically true, in that more synaptic contacts are formed by repeated use.

3) "Potential" brainpower is therefore a meaningless concept, in the same way that the "potential number of bits that will ever traverse the internet" is a meaningless concept.  All that can be said is that both will remain a finite quantity, but how much either could be is undefined.

All this blither about using only 10% of our "brainpower" is fundamentally nonsensical.   Therefore, all your doughnuts are belong to us.

[CP5670]

That's exactly what I have been saying! This "potential brain power" is not well-defined.

[Sesquipedalian]

Originally posted by CP5670
That's exactly what I have been saying! This "potential brain power" is not well-defined.

In fact, it is undefinable.  There may be certain biological upper limits, just as there are on muscle mass, but like any biological upper limit, they are "stretchy."  It just gets harder to continue as one progresses.

You were one of the few at whom I wasn't :wtf:ing.

[Lonestar]

Originally posted by Sesquipedalian
@ most posts in this thread.

1) All areas of the human brain are used.  

2) "Brainpower" is not a matter of how much bulk is used or available for use, it is a matter of how dense the synapses are between membranes.  Every one of us therefore uses 100% (or close to it) of our "brainpower."  Moreover, the phrase "exercise your brain" is not at all meaningless: that reading and thinking more will increase your "brainpower" is biologically true, in that more synaptic contacts are formed by repeated use.

3) "Potential" brainpower is therefore a meaningless concept, in the same way that the "potential number of bits that will ever traverse the internet" is a meaningless concept.  All that can be said is that both will remain a finite quantity, but how much either could be is undefined.

All this blither about using only 10% of our "brainpower" is fundamentally nonsensical.   Therefore, all your doughnuts are belong to us.

It sounds logical what you are saying here, but how does one prove this theory? Or has it already been proven? I dont doubt its plausibility, however facts would be nice to follow up on. Im sure we arent using our brains full potential and im sure if we are using 100% (if we can actually calculate it in numbers) at any one time do we go up to 110% when we learn more or were we not at 100% at the time? I mean memory is part of the brain, therefore 100% use of the brain includes memory. So u can see my dilemma, when learning more in life in experience and teachings yet we are already using 100%, maybe we go to 110% cause we used more? Does our brain grow or something? heads get bigger as u learn and experience more? Man this is a brain teaser, its the thought that never ends..........it goes on and on my friends...........

[CP5670]

I guess it would be possible to find some point at which the brain has reached an absolute maximum "capacity" (although that may be nearly impossible to reach), but the thing is, suppose we directly modify a brain and add a computer onto it, that would make the brain more powerful, increasing the "potential" brain power. But whatever was done to the brain was an idea and product of the old brain, so the old brain also had the "potential." And if the brain "can" use this extra 90%, why is it not doing so? (that would mean that it "cannot" )

Therefore, the doughnut option in the poll is the best one.

[Lonestar]

/me hides in a corner shaking

All this talk of brains, and doughnuts strangely enough are making me hungry.

[Sesquipedalian]

Originally posted by Lonestar


It sounds logical what you are saying here, but how does one prove this theory? Or has it already been proven? I dont doubt its plausibility, however facts would be nice to follow up on. Im sure we arent using our brains full potential and im sure if we are using 100% (if we can actually calculate it in numbers) at any one time do we go up to 110% when we learn more or were we not at 100% at the time? I mean memory is part of the brain, therefore 100% use of the brain includes memory. So u can see my dilemma, when learning more in life in experience and teachings yet we are already using 100%, maybe we go to 110% cause we used more? Does our brain grow or something? heads get bigger as u learn and experience more? Man this is a brain teaser, its the thought that never ends..........it goes on and on my friends...........

See a certain recent issue of Scientific American for proof.  Last month? Two months ago?  Something like that, anyway.  It was kicking around in our dorm's bathroom for a while, but disappeared eventually.  But since I'd already read it cover to cover twice, I didn't bother looking into its fate.

And the way it works re: learning is very similar to building muscles through exercise.  In states of relative mental rest, the rate of synapse firing is low, but when busily thinking about something, synapses fire quickly.  Steady use will cause more synaptic pathways to be forged between brain cells, much like steady use will cause an increase in numbers and in strength of muscles cells.
I should add that different areas are used for different things, and heavy, sustained mental activity in one area will cause the forging of more synaptic pathways in that area, and not in others.  So when CP5670 spends large amounts of time working on mathematical problems, the areas of his brain involved in mathematical reasoning are strengthened, whereas those involved in, say, literary creativity are not.  Thus the idea of an overall IQ is misleading.  One would do better to speak of IQs.