An excellent article on materialism!

[scribble]

http://www.nature.com/nsu/040412/040412-3.html

The number of things you can hold in your mind at once has been traced to one penny-sized part of the brain.

Some people here are clearly running on something more dime-sized.

 

[Skeptical Greg]

http://www.nature.com/nsu/040412/040412-3.html



Some people here are clearly running on something more dime-sized.

You're too kind..

 

[hammegk]

Not to mention, wrong, in your assertion that the article addresses materialism.

It does discuss the scientific approach to analyzing particular areas of our "brain wiring", but does not address the philosophic topic of materialism vs immaterialism.

 

[Wrath of the Swarm]

In that sense, it's similar to virtually all of your posts in the "Materialism and Immaterialism" thread.

 

[kuroyume0161]

For immediate retention, sounds about right. How many ordered numerical digits (e.g.: credit card number or phone number) can you remember at once? I've heard seven as the average maximum. Yet our brains far surpass any super computer in storage, processing, and, of course, higher functionality. One supposes that our brains do not function as much like the computer as analogized in the past.

Kuroyume

 

[Wrath of the Swarm]

It's all a matter of how incoming data is processed. If we don't have the hardware to perform arithmetic verbally, we have to use cruder methods.

 

[dmarker]

It depends on how you think about the brain as a computer.

When we are walking, our brains compute a myriad of physics problems. When we catch a ball, our brains have solved a complex algebraic (I think, I'm weak on math) equation. Our brains do these computations automatically.

 

[Wrath of the Swarm]

Catching a ball involves differential equations, if I remember correctly.