Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Path: utzoo!linus!decvax!harpo!seismo!hao!hplabs!sri-unix!dsn%umcp-cs@CSNet-Relay From: dsn%umcp-cs%CSNet-Relay@sri-unix.UUCP Newsgroups: net.ai Subject: parallel processing in the brain Message-ID: <16416@sri-arpa.UUCP> Date: Tue, 31-Jan-84 09:15:02 EST Article-I.D.: sri-arpa.16416 Posted: Tue Jan 31 09:15:02 1984 Date-Received: Thu, 9-Feb-84 03:21:35 EST Lines: 28 From: Dana S. NauFrom: Rene Bach What are the evidences that the brain is a parallel processor? My own introspection seem to indicate that mine is doing time-sharing. That is I can follow only one idea at a time, but with a lot of switching between reasoning paths (often more non directed than controlled switching). Does that mean you hold your breath and stop thinking while you're walking, and stop walking in order to breathe or think? More pointedly, I think it's incorrect to consider only consciously-controlled processes when we talk about whether or not the brain is doing parallel processing. Perhaps the conscious part of your mind can keep track of only one thing at a time, but most (probably >90%) of the processing done by the brain is subconscious. For example, most of us have to think a LOT about what we're doing when we're first learning to drive. But after a while, it becomes largely automatic, and the conscious part of our mind is freed to think about other things while we're driving. As another example, have you ever had the experience of trying unsuccessfully to remember something, and later remembering whatever-it-was while you were thinking about something else? SOME kind of processing was going on in the interim, or you wouldn't have remembered whatever-it-was.