So That is Why We Have a Brain
If you would rather watch a twenty minute and more thorough presentation of this article, go to the bottom link.
Why do we have brains? To ponder the mysteries of the universe? To experience the emotions of life, such as love, anger, happiness, frustration, and etc.? To find the amount of work done on a box being pushed up a ramp (a typical physics 218 problem)? Well, according to Daniel Wolpert, "...we have a brain to produce adaptable and complex motion." and this could be a valid statement. If you think about it, the only way we can manipulate our external environment is by the use of our external limbs or by sweating. That said, we probably have the most complex bodies in the animal kingdom in terms of the range of motions that our body can undergo, as we have opposable thumbs that allow us to grab, we have legs that allow us to jump, run, walk, and swim, and we could have an infinite amount of combinations of body movements for an infinite number of purposes. This could be one of the reasons we have about 10^12 neurons with each up to 200,000 synapses... an astounding number of neurons to simply learn how to read and write. To me, these numbers seem to add up, almost an infinite number of connections for almost an infinite number of movement combinations.
An example that Daniel Wolpert gives in his presentation is that of Sea squirts, animals that swim around the ocean during its juvenile life and then 'plants' itself on a rock and digests its own nervous system (there's also a funny analogy to professors who obtain tenure but I digress). Without the need of movement, stationary, living beings, such as plants, do not need a central nervous system to survive, their environment takes care of them, whereas moving animals need to manipulate their environment.
Dr. Wolpert then goes on to explain why we need such computing systems to calculate movement. When we perceive our environment, we are perceiving it with an abundant amount of noise that makes it difficult for us to accurately guide our movements as well as to interact with external variables such as a baseball flying towards you or a velociraptor flying at you. From this we use a model of Bayesian Theory that allows us to accurately predict objects relative to us will be over a period of time. We use our prior knowledge as well as a simulated prediction from our brain about the location or movement of a foreign object.
You could relate Bayesian Theory to sort of a maximum and minimum error that your brain computes without you even being aware of the computations. From this we create motion that will ultimately help us survive.
Finally, an interesting point that Dr. Wolpert made in his presentation is that we are all similar in the way we execute movements but for those of us that are naturally more capable of accounting for foreign noise, we can produce more efficient movements that would ultimately help us survive but possibly also help with the reproduction of superior genes, in this case a more competent brain. Turns out some athletes are smarter than we thought.
source: http://www.ted.com/talks/daniel_wolpert_the_real_reason_for_brains.html
Why do we have brains? To ponder the mysteries of the universe? To experience the emotions of life, such as love, anger, happiness, frustration, and etc.? To find the amount of work done on a box being pushed up a ramp (a typical physics 218 problem)? Well, according to Daniel Wolpert, "...we have a brain to produce adaptable and complex motion." and this could be a valid statement. If you think about it, the only way we can manipulate our external environment is by the use of our external limbs or by sweating. That said, we probably have the most complex bodies in the animal kingdom in terms of the range of motions that our body can undergo, as we have opposable thumbs that allow us to grab, we have legs that allow us to jump, run, walk, and swim, and we could have an infinite amount of combinations of body movements for an infinite number of purposes. This could be one of the reasons we have about 10^12 neurons with each up to 200,000 synapses... an astounding number of neurons to simply learn how to read and write. To me, these numbers seem to add up, almost an infinite number of connections for almost an infinite number of movement combinations.
An example that Daniel Wolpert gives in his presentation is that of Sea squirts, animals that swim around the ocean during its juvenile life and then 'plants' itself on a rock and digests its own nervous system (there's also a funny analogy to professors who obtain tenure but I digress). Without the need of movement, stationary, living beings, such as plants, do not need a central nervous system to survive, their environment takes care of them, whereas moving animals need to manipulate their environment.
Dr. Wolpert then goes on to explain why we need such computing systems to calculate movement. When we perceive our environment, we are perceiving it with an abundant amount of noise that makes it difficult for us to accurately guide our movements as well as to interact with external variables such as a baseball flying towards you or a velociraptor flying at you. From this we use a model of Bayesian Theory that allows us to accurately predict objects relative to us will be over a period of time. We use our prior knowledge as well as a simulated prediction from our brain about the location or movement of a foreign object.
You could relate Bayesian Theory to sort of a maximum and minimum error that your brain computes without you even being aware of the computations. From this we create motion that will ultimately help us survive.
Finally, an interesting point that Dr. Wolpert made in his presentation is that we are all similar in the way we execute movements but for those of us that are naturally more capable of accounting for foreign noise, we can produce more efficient movements that would ultimately help us survive but possibly also help with the reproduction of superior genes, in this case a more competent brain. Turns out some athletes are smarter than we thought.
source: http://www.ted.com/talks/daniel_wolpert_the_real_reason_for_brains.html
posted by vincent.zaballa at 1:04 PM
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