576
I'm literally a thinking lump of fat (mander.xyz)
submitted 2 years ago by to c/science_memes@mander.xyz
95 comments fedilink hide all child comments
 
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[–] 14 points 2 years ago (2 children)

The brain is not a "lump of fat". If you desiccate the brain, most of what's left are lipids, yes, but at that point you are not conscious anymore. The brain is a mix of proteins, carbohydrates, water and fat.

  • permalink
  • fedilink
  • source
  • hideshow 4 child comments
    •
  • [–] 1 point 2 years ago* (2 children)

    Also fairly sure that electrical impulses alone cannot account for consciousness. If that were "all" there was to it we'd have simulated a human brain by now. There's a few theories about quantum processes being involved but this isn't exactly easily proven.

  • permalink
  • fedilink
  • source
  • parent
  • hideshow 4 child comments
    •
  • [–] 11 points 2 years ago (2 children)

    If that were "all" there was to it we'd have simulated a human brain by now.

    Didn't it take them a long ass time to do this for a fruit fly brain?

  • permalink
  • fedilink
  • source
  • parent
  • hideshow 4 child comments
    •
  • [–] 4 points 2 years ago

    Depends on when you start the timer. The fruit fly brain was only completely mapped recently. There's a simulation of it that runs on a laptop. If that simulation can run on a modern laptop and the map was otherwise available, then it likely could have been done on supercomputers in the decades prior.

  • permalink
  • fedilink
  • source
  • parent
  • [–] 5 points 2 years ago (1 child)

    To simulate a human brain, we would need a complete map of it. We don't have that yet. If the quantum theories around neurons are correct, then the map would be incomplete without it.

    I doubt we could simulate it directly without a very specialized ASIC.

  • permalink
  • fedilink
  • source
  • parent
  • hideshow 2 child comments
    •