eli5 why brain memory is imperfect but computer memory is near perfect
In: 0
Computer memory uses a different address/transistors on the memory chip to store each piece of data, so storing something new doesn’t interfere with what’s already there.
Brain memory doesn’t work that way – there isn’t a separate neuron (or group of neurons) for each memory. Instead, groups of neurons are used to collectively store multiple memories and new memories can therefore interfere with old ones.
The computer-brain analogy isn’t very helpful – they are really very different. A computer has separate components for processing and memory, but in our brain both functions are combined – we don’t really have separate “memory” as such, but rather just a processor (our cortex) that is modified by experience to reflect “memories”, which is why it works the way that it does.
If you wanted to have a *slightly* better computer analogy of how brain memory works, then something like a computer hash table might give a better idea… there isn’t a separate location for each thing to be stored, but because most hash codes are different, there usually aren’t any clashes. This is comparable to how our brains use groups of neurons and sparse/embedded representations to store things.
Latest Answers