Computers can challenge human brains through the latest games and programs, as you have manifested so far. For example, the computer opponent against you in a Chess or similar game can outperform you. The credit mainly goes to machine learning, artificial intelligence, and equivalent technologies that can find out the next best move.
The human brain and its functionalities are used and analysed to model numerous artificial neural networks. This helps in designing and developing a computerised expert system. Now, this might catch your attention and compel you to think about whether the human brain is a computer. Human brain vs computer: what are the similarities and differences?
This guide will show you how a human brain differs from a computer. However, you have to go through a few basics about the human brain and computer before comparing these two. Let’s start with the human brain.
Human Brain in A Glimpse
The human brain is the most complex system in the human anatomy. Before you leap to the difference between a human brain vs computer, here’s a quick look at what your brain is actively participating in and monitoring 24×7:
- Seeing
- Breathing
- Smelling
- Imagining
- Hearing
- Talking
- Thinking
- Learning
- Breathing
- Experiencing
- Deciding and more
It’s not easy to keep track of and control all these activities. To coordinate with everything inside and outside, a human brain comprises 100 billion neurons. Additionally, a human brain’s cortex has almost 1012 synapses per cubic centimetre. Not to mention, such tasks require a substantial amount of processing.
On the other hand, the human brain’s memory is used for the following tasks:
- Storing information
- Encoding details
- Retaining experiences
- Reminding information and past encounters
So, the human brain is responsible for retaining learned information and processing it along with other things. Neurons carry out all the processes and are just living cells acting as storage units. On the other hand, Synapses transmit electrical neural impulses from one neuron to another. On an exciting note, there’s no upper limit to the brain’s storage capacity.
If you want to consider the first difference between the human brain and computer, here’s a fact. Computer networks follow topology, whereas the brain doesn’t. Indeed, a human brain can change its topology and generate a new connection whenever you want to learn anything new.
Furthermore, retrieving information from a human brain is unlike a computer. On the other hand, human brains need more or less 1800 calories to accomplish different tasks. While the power requirements of a computer are much higher than that.
A Computer
As you know, the computer is an electronic invention that is capable of computations or, in a simpler form, calculations. Talking about a computer’s construction it’s made up of the following components:
- Logic gates
- Capacitors
- Diodes
- Transistors
- Integrated circuits and more
Such electrical components are connected and aligned so that they can process information and data in microseconds or nanoseconds. However, a computer is a no match for the human brain still now when it comes to the conflict between the human brain vs computer.
For example, a computer can perform tasks that any standard child’s brain can do like identifying diverse voices, recognising handwriting patterns, and so on. In addition, the storage of computers can vary from one system to another. Computer memory can be categorised into 2 types, and they are primary and secondary.
The primary memory stores data temporarily for quick updates and access. This type of memory can vanish when the power of the system goes down. However, secondary storage can retain data for longer periods and in the form of removable disks, Hard disks, tape drivers, and more. The smallest unit of computer storage is known as a byte.
How can a computer connect with another computer since there are no synapses or neurons like a human brain? Well, computers take the help of different topologies such as bus, ring, star, and mesh. Thus, networking devices like switches, nodes, hubs, satellites, and workstations can connect.
Connecting networks between computers are known as LAN, WAN, and MAN, depending on the coverage area. Additionally, computers use server and client architecture to retrieve data. However, the processing speed of any computer is much faster. Still, it requires gigawatts of power to operate.
Human Brain vs Computer: How Do They Differentiate?
As you already got a brief intro about the human brain and computer, it will be easier to understand the difference between a human brain vs computer. How can a human brain stand out from a computer? To keep things simple, we have included 3 comparison factors. Let’s sneak into the battle:
Storage
Most computers require at least 500GB of storage for day-to-day activities, browsing, gaming, and other data-resourceful tasks. Apart from accessing Hard disks, users can rely on external storage devices, portable SSDs, cloud storage, and more. High-end computers can also store up to 2TB of data.
So, what’s the storage capacity of a human brain? This depends on the number of neurons. While most studies have proved that a brain can have 100 billion neurons, research from Stanford University has shown that there are 200 billion neurons in the brain.
Since brain and computer storage units are completely different, it’s quite hard to compare them. Every neuron can roughly connect to thousands of other neurons. On the other hand, a typical human brain has more than a trillion neuron connections, leading to an exponential storage capacity.
According to trusted studies and research, a brain’s storage capacity can be 1 petabyte. Now, 1 petabyte is equivalent to more than a thousand 1 TB SSDs. This keeps the human brain way ahead of a computer in terms of storage capacity. And, this storage difference between computer and human brain is significant.
Power Efficiency
Undoubtedly, computers are faster and more precise than human brains. However, a human brain is more advantageous in terms of energy utilisation. Usually, a computer can operate on a power of 100 watts or more. Whereas a human brain can run on roughly 10 watts.
So, a human brain can use less power than a lightbulb. And, a computer requires almost 10 times more power to run daily chores.
Memory Retrieval
So far, the human brain is on the lead. Still, computers can process information much faster because they can access memory more efficiently. For example, if a computer knows a particular fact, it can readily answer the question. On the other hand, the human brain might have to suffer to recall the answer.
In addition, computers aren’t biased about data types. They treat every data equally, unlike human brains. For instance, humans can memorise different data types according to their priorities. You can easily tell your date of birth, but you might face a problem remembering what you had for dinner on the last Wednesday.
So, computers are better at accessing memory or processing data than human brains.
Key Differences between Human Brains vs Computers
Now, let’s review the difference between computer and human brain in points. This will give you a quick understanding of how a computer differs from a brain.
- Neurons and synapses construct a human brain, whereas electronic components (capacitors, ICs, diodes, transistors, and so on) form a computer.
- A brain comes up with a built-in backup system. However, a computer gets a manual backup system.
- The memory density of a brain and a computer are 10^7 circuits per cubic centimetre and 10^14 bits per cubic centimetre.
- Additionally, the human brain stores information using electric and electrochemical pulses. A computer saves data in binary bits.
- The memory growth of a brain increases every time synapses link. On the other hand, a computer’s memory growth is possible by including extra memory chips.
- A typical brain weighs almost 3.3 pounds with a volume of 1500 cubic centimetres. However, computers’ weights and volumes can vary widely from grams to tons.
- Human sensory organs are the inputs and outputs of the brain. Whereas hardware components such as the mouse, keyboards, monitors, web cameras, etc, can act as input and output devices of a computer.
- A brain is an elf organised with impressive parallelism and reliability. However, a computer has to operate on a pre-programmed structure with limited parallelism. Moreover, computers execute mundane tasks and can’t even rectify mistakes independently.
- The human brain consumes 12 watts of power, but a computer needs gigawatts.
Similarities between Human Brain and Computer
The battle between the human brain vs computer doesn’t imply that there is no similarity between them. Both utilise electrical signals for data transmission. On the other hand, their memory can grow depending on the connections. Both human brains and computers can adapt and learn new things.
On an exciting note, both can calculate, execute logical tasks, and require energy. Chances are that both can evolve and be modified. Well, none of them is immune towards damage. For example, a brain’s cells can be damaged, and a computer can receive accidental damage too. However, a computer can’t make decisions like a brain does yet.
