My Opinions on the Fundamental Limits of Human Brain

[Suri]

Some people believe that as long as we keep studying sciences, we will keep getting smarter and smarter. There is no limit on how smart we could get. As we accumulate knowledge of the universe in our brains, our intelligence grows without a limit. Clearly we are much smarter than when we were living in caves. However, I would argue that there is a fundamental limit of how "smart" we could get. Imagine that if someone tries to teach a monkey how to use a computer to surf the internet. It doesn't matter how hard the person tries, the monkey will never learn to be able to do research on the internet as a human being would. There is a fundamental limit that the brain of the monkey could never exceed. Same is true for us. Although we are the only "intelligent" species on this planet (by our own standards), there is something in this universe that we will never, ever understand. It doesn't matter if we keep developing astrophysics, string theory or quantum mechanics for another 1000 years. There is something that is simply beyond the biological capabilities of our brains. (Unless we can develop a way to enhance the brain using some genetic methods, but that is another story.) Personally, I believe that the fundamental limit of our minds is logic.

We can only understand something if it "makes sense" from a logical perspective. We have been doing decisions based on our logical abilities for a long long time. Although some of the most brilliant minds among us have been able to understand something extremely complex, such as relativity and dark matter, that 99.99% of the entire human population is not able to understand, those things still need to adhere to the rules of logic. Why did some great mathematicians like Cantor became crazy after studying concepts, such as infinity, that are hard to comprehend and even somewhat illogical? I believe it is because that at some points in their studies they saw something that we couldn't see. They started to see how god designed us so that we could never think outside the box of logic. We are no different from monkeys. They rely on their animal instincts to make decisions. We rely on logic. It is our inability to see beyond logic that makes us fundamentally limited to understand the universe. I believe that, out there in some galaxies far away, there must be some intelligent species who think on a level that is higher than logic. They look at us and our logic the same way we look at animals and their instincts. We can keep increasing our knowledge forever because there is always some new stuff that could be invented within the realm of logic, but the universe is so much more complicated than logic. If we want to understand the mind of god, we need to start questioning logic.

[bluewind.]

We learn lots of thinks that we don't fully understand.

Quantum mechanics doesn't make sense to me but I still learn it and comprehend it.

[jimbo11883]

What god...

Anyways, we may just evolve and some day be able to understand things we currently can not.

[Slimy]

If you taught the monkey from birth, he'd probably learn how to do research eventually.

[Guest jgrodri]

pretty interesting argument....

I'd argue that you assume that there are things that escape logic. I think logic is more powerful and flexible that what you assume.

But even so, we are capable of reasoning beyond logic (or below depending on you view). Feelings, religious beliefs, bonds between people and so on are things that sometimes defy logic yet we are all capable of them.

I won't argue that its impossible to know it all but i'd say its because of a combination of entropy, uncertainty principle and the sheer amount of information out there (all of which can be explained logically).

EDIT: Slimy, you may want to think that through again.... I SERIOUSLY doubt a monkey could do research (academically) under any circumstances.

[primexx]

Some people believe that as long as we keep studying sciences, we will keep getting smarter and smarter. There is no limit on how smart we could get. As we accumulate knowledge of the universe in our brains, our intelligence grows without a limit. Clearly we are much smarter than when we were living in caves. However, I would argue that there is a fundamental limit of how "smart" we could get. Imagine that if someone tries to teach a monkey how to use a computer to surf the internet. It doesn't matter how hard the person tries, the monkey will never learn to be able to do research on the internet as a human being would. There is a fundamental limit that the brain of the monkey could never exceed. Same is true for us. Although we are the only "intelligent" species on this planet (by our own standards), there is something in this universe that we will never, ever understand. It doesn't matter if we keep developing astrophysics, string theory or quantum mechanics for another 1000 years. There is something that is simply beyond the biological capabilities of our brains. (Unless we can develop a way to enhance the brain using some genetic methods, but that is another story.) Personally, I believe that the fundamental limit of our minds is logic.

We can only understand something if it "makes sense" from a logical perspective. We have been doing decisions based on our logical abilities for a long long time. Although some of the most brilliant minds among us have been able to understand something extremely complex, such as relativity and dark matter, that 99.99% of the entire human population is not able to understand, those things still need to adhere to the rules of logic. Why did some great mathematicians like Cantor became crazy after studying concepts, such as infinity, that are hard to comprehend and even somewhat illogical? I believe it is because that at some points in their studies they saw something that we couldn't see. They started to see how god designed us so that we could never think outside the box of logic. We are no different from monkeys. They rely on their animal instincts to make decisions. We rely on logic. It is our inability to see beyond logic that makes us fundamentally limited to understand the universe. I believe that, out there in some galaxies far away, there must be some intelligent species who think on a level that is higher than logic. They look at us and our logic the same way we look at animals and their instincts. We can keep increasing our knowledge forever because there is always some new stuff that could be invented within the realm of logic, but the universe is so much more complicated than logic. If we want to understand the mind of god, we need to start questioning logic.

what a load of crap

1. there probably is a limit to human mental capacity, but that limit is not fixed, i.e. it could grow as the species evolves.

2. logic as we know it is an abstract concept, it's not physical and therefore cannot possibly be a limit on our mental capacity.

3. the assumption that there is anything beyond logical comprehension is unsubstantiated at best, and likely false.

4. your whole universe/god spiel is very unoriginal and completely unwarranted.

[Laurë Veteran]

Some people believe that as long as we keep studying sciences, we will keep getting smarter and smarter. There is no limit on how smart we could get. As we accumulate knowledge of the universe in our brains, our intelligence grows without a limit. Clearly we are much smarter than when we were living in caves. However, I would argue that there is a fundamental limit of how "smart" we could get. Imagine that if someone tries to teach a monkey how to use a computer to surf the internet. It doesn't matter how hard the person tries, the monkey will never learn to be able to do research on the internet as a human being would. There is a fundamental limit that the brain of the monkey could never exceed. Same is true for us. Although we are the only "intelligent" species on this planet (by our own standards), there is something in this universe that we will never, ever understand. It doesn't matter if we keep developing astrophysics, string theory or quantum mechanics for another 1000 years. There is something that is simply beyond the biological capabilities of our brains. (Unless we can develop a way to enhance the brain using some genetic methods, but that is another story.) Personally, I believe that the fundamental limit of our minds is logic.

Define intelligence. Accurately and definitively in such a way that no one can argue with you. Then you can start telling me that it's limited and how.

As far as I'm concerned everything in nature and the universe follows certain rules. Maybe you don't know enough science to realise this.

So to understand things, we need to understand the rules. I'm sure it's not that simple but you get the idea.

Humans aren't necessarily smarter than 1,000 or 10,000 years ago - we just know more. And the great thing is that every new discovery can be passed onto the next generation. That means lots of accumulated knowledge. Cavemen as you call them were smart enough to work out how to hunt, make basic tools and clothes etc. When your basic needs, like food, take so much time, you can't sit about counting stones.

We can only understand something if it "makes sense" from a logical perspective. We have been doing decisions based on our logical abilities for a long long time. Although some of the most brilliant minds among us have been able to understand something extremely complex, such as relativity and dark matter, that 99.99% of the entire human population is not able to understand, those things still need to adhere to the rules of logic. Why did some great mathematicians like Cantor became crazy after studying concepts, such as infinity, that are hard to comprehend and even somewhat illogical? I believe it is because that at some points in their studies they saw something that we couldn't see.

Do you know what emotions are? Do you understand them? Does that require logic? If an emotion is not logical you may not understand straight away why you feel that, but you still understand that feeling of happy or sad/whatever.

Do you really never let your decisions be affected by emotions? Most people do at times.

If 99.99% of the population doesn't understand something like relativity then it's because they haven't had the right education, not because they are incapable of understanding. Just because *you* don't understand something doesn't mean that other people can't.

They started to see how god designed us so that we could never think outside the box of logic. We are no different from monkeys. They rely on their animal instincts to make decisions. We rely on logic. It is our inability to see beyond logic that makes us fundamentally limited to understand the universe. I believe that, out there in some galaxies far away, there must be some intelligent species who think on a level that is higher than logic. They look at us and our logic the same way we look at animals and their instincts. We can keep increasing our knowledge forever because there is always some new stuff that could be invented within the realm of logic, but the universe is so much more complicated than logic. If we want to understand the mind of god, we need to start questioning logic.

Yes, how predictable that this was a god discussion. There is a thread in RWI for this kind of thing, I hope the mods take it there.

Your knowledge of human brains, other animals and science in general is clearly very sparse. I don't know how you think you can start making such big sweeping judgements like this when you don't actually know what you are talking about.

LOTS of animals are capable of many of the things humans can do. Communication, (basic) reasoning, memory, social structures, using tools etc etc. Ok so it's a lesser ability, but it's there. It could evolve.

How do you come to the conclusion that the universe is more than "complicated logic"? I don't know if I even like using your terminolgy, real scientists might argue about what logic is.

Humans are still evolving. Even if our brains hit a brick wall of what we are able to understand, I have every confidence that we would continue to gnaw at that wall and adapt and break it down. It's what we do. Well, those of us who don't allow religious beliefs to get in the way.

[PricklyPoo]

Humans inability to understand things because it is beyond their limits is a bunch of religious bull****. They just use that excuse because it doesn't really make any sense to begin with and there is no proof.

[Boifido]

Well we are sort of like super evolved monkeys, and if we use our brains, I think they will evolve.

[Antaris Veteran]

I think the brain is a marvelous thing, it is essentially a very complex binary computer with a massive amount of memory. What marvels me more is conscience. How does one think, and how is that though expressed as a chained series of events? I think your understanding of intelligence is different to mine, but I look at it in this way:

10,000 years ago, humans had smaller brains, and by comparison, a smaller % of synapses where being fired. In the modern day, the human brain is larger, giving us a better capacity for thought. How does intelligence relate to brain size? I think its a simple one, the better utilised your brain is, the more intelligent you are. That age-old saying of "we only use 10% of our brain" is often misinterpretted, it really is supposed to mean that at any point, only 10% of our available synapses are firing, but the entire brain is being utilised. The brain is capable or excessive multitasking, sensory perception, decision making, but what is the controlling force behind this? I believe this to be your conscience, and because of this, I think the understanding of your conscience will be critical in understanding where we can go from here.