eli5 why brain memory is imperfect but computer memory is near perfect
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Computer memory is made by having a physical thing which represents something. Human brains remember things through association.
Binary is how we store information on computers. This is because its very clear and easy to represent binary. Binary has two states 1 and 0. So to physically represent something in binary you only need something that has two states. Like a light being on or off, or a hole being in a piece of paper. Nowadays we store information on special electrical components which can hold charge for a very long time without being powered, but the princable is the same. The only way computer memory becomes imperfect is if that physical representation of the thing changes. In this way it’s sort of like writing something down on a piece of paper in a different language. Unless something ruins the paper or changes what’s on it, the papers ‘memory’ is perfect.
Where as human brains remember things through association. Neurons link and connect in complex patterns and your brain is just good and know what neurons normally fire together. So when we experience something certain neurons fire to represent that experience. When we recall something those same neurons fire recreating the experience. But obviously there is a difference between remembering something and experiencing it, this is because the exact same neurons don’t fire. Without reminders over time less and less of the same neurons fire and the sensation we recreate is different from what the experience first was.
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