We think about one thing at a time (apparently), but when we reflect we can think about multiple things at once. A study by the California Institute of Technology has exactly quantified the speed of the human brain and of all the sensory data that is collected, one trillion bits per second. The question that arises is: why can we process thousands of inputs at the same time while our brain is much faster? We’re talking about 10 bits out of the trillion of information that comes into our hardware. Supporters of “slow thinking” have emerged, which seems very Zen to me.
Since I am not that competent on the subject (I know, but I am a writer who is interested in science, never make the mistake of knowing more than the experts), I ask Ranieri Bizzarri, one of our most important biophysicists, about this study, and I ask him (always have scientist friends, otherwise it’s a mess; obviously lawyers and doctors too).
So, Ranieri, is this discrepancy between what our brain processes and how much we are able to think physiological?
“That there is a discrepancy between the extent of sensory stimuli and the way in which our brain consciously organizes some of these stimuli into thoughts and actions does not surprise me, because it is well known that the vast majority of nervous system activities as a consequence of external stimuli travel below the threshold of conscious thought.”
An example?
“At the moment I am sitting but unless I shift my attention to my bottom in contact with the chair, I have no perception of the stimulus. Yet here too there is a great deal of information linked to the contact between the chair and my body which is collected by the brain but of which I have no conscious experience.”
Ranieri, one thing comes to mind: there is this popular myth that human beings only use 10% of the brain, and it seems to me that this study, if misunderstood, risks fueling it. What do you think?
“I think you’re right, the popular idea that we only use 10% of the brain typically refers to the ability to use paranormal faculties like telepathy, telekinesis, and things like that. We actually don’t want to admit to ourselves that only a small part of conscious activity is aware and articulated in a thought.”
Don’t you think that the misunderstanding of these studies always tends to place an immaterial, mysterious part in the brain, which can console the human being from considering himself only a brain?
“Yes, what you say is partly true, also because we don’t realize what an extraordinary product of biological evolution our brain is and ultimately our very existence.”
But Ranieri, many spiritualists will call us materialists. But I have never heard a spiritualist speak without a mind.
“On the other hand, there are many non-spiritualists and others for whom it is possible to find the influence of other organs on thought.”
Type?
“I leave it to slow thought to imagine it calmly.”