| From: | Doctor Doom <jch8169@*******.TAMU.EDU> |
|---|---|
| Subject: | Brain Usage (Was: Re: Cyberware Power) |
| Date: | Fri, 23 Sep 1994 01:30:52 -0500 |
> um...correct me if I'm wrong, but doesn't the human brain
>function at something like 25% capacity? If so, doesn't it follow that
>there is, or was (potentially untapped) a source of power for the
>remaining 75%? And if we're not using it now...
This is a slightly misleading statistic, and the second time it has
appeared on this list ... last occasion was in July.
These sort of beliefs are to psychologists what all those collegiate
rumors/contemporary legends about Catherine the Great are to
historians: Widespread and difficult to dispel.
From "Return of the Straight Dope" by Cecil Adams, pp. 28-29 :
"The 10 percent statistic has been attributed to the pioneering psychologist
and philosopher William James (1842-1910). I haven't been able to confirm
that he gave a specific percentage, but he did say, "We are making use of only
a small part of our possible mental and physical resources." (_The Energies of
Men_, 1908). The anthropologist Margaret Mead supposedly said we used 6
percent, and similar numbers have been mentioned by various lesser known
parties.
"Whatever the source, such figures have not scientific basis except in the
most limited sense. Serious brain researchers say why perhaps we don't use
our brains as efficiently as we might, there's no evidence we have vast
unused abilities.
"Admittedly, no one has ever tested all the tens of billions of neurons in a
given brain. You've certainly got a few spares; otherwise no one would ever
recover from a stroke. But attempts to map out the cerebral cortex, the center
of the higher mental functions, have not found large areas which don't do
anything. The general view is that the brain is too small (just three pounds),
uses too many resources (20 percent of body oxygen utilization, though it
accounts for just 2 percent of weight), and has too much to do for 90 percent
of it to be completely comatose.
"Obviously not all the brain is in use at once. At any given time about 5
percent of the neurons are active, the only sense in which the old saying is
even close to true. (Good thing, too, or you'd have the equivalent of a grand
mal seizure, a mental electrical storm in which the neurons fire continually.)
The parts of the brain are highly individualized, and some areas are more
active than others depending on the task at hand. But all the parts do
something, and it seems safe to say that over time you use pretty much all your
brain, just as most people use all their muscles to a degree."
Consequently, it would exhibit veracity were one to assert that we only
utilize 10-20% of our brains at any ONE TIME, but the notion that there
exists vast tracts of mental tissue not brought to bear is spurious.
Colonel Count von Hohenzollern und von Doom, DMSc, DSc, PhD.
Doom Technologies & Weapon Systems -- Dark Thought Publications
>>> Working on solutions best left in the dark.
<<<
[ Doctor Doom : jch8169@*******.tamu.edu ]
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"A mind is a terrible thing ... and must be stopped."
