That cell phone in your hand is a modern miracle. Think of the billions of interconnected microscopic transistors in its brain, each one making a simple decision, one or zero, yes or no. Add them all up and they can make a phone call, text, run Angry Birds or download a remarkable array of apps.
But what about the minds that made the cell phone? If a cell phone has billions of transistors, your brain has hundreds of billions of tiny neurons, many multiples more than the most complex computer has transistors. Each neuron has tens of thousands of complex interconnections. That’s amazing in itself, but it’s only the tip of the smart electronic iceberg. A transistor is not the same thing as a human neuron. They’re not even close.
Where a transistor makes a decision between a one and a zero based on a single electrical input, each neuron makes decisions based on electrical inputs, sodium inputs, potassium inputs, chlorine inputs, or multiple combinations of them. It’s also a tiny chemical battery, so it’s able to hold its previous electro-chemical memory. So where a transistor can only output a simple one or a zero, each of your hundreds of billions of neurons has a nearly infinite number of inputs and outputs. Let’s take it further. Once your cell phone is manufactured, it’s impossible to go back in and change the wiring. Sure, you can download another program, but you can’t actually change how a computer is built. Your brain is being rewired every minute of every day. Neurons are constantly making new connections as you make new memories and learn new skills.
It’s interesting that brains and computers share a similar structure. That makes me think. Are we imitators? Do we make things in our image because we are the image of somebody else, somebody as far above us as we are above the cell phone?
