My Brain Is Being Bombarded By Hundreds Of Millions Of Bits Of Information Every Second

I find brains to be incredibly exciting, because they are capable of holding a huge capacity of information, while being versatile enough to change and improve.  Brains can ignore what is not relevant and prioritize what is.  If I could develop unlimited brain power, then I would become a mastermind, which is a person who possesses outstanding intellect that is capable of planning and directing an ingenious and complex scheme by applying their creative intelligence.

The human brain weighs about three-pounds and it is not and grey in color, despite the common inception that refers to a person using their grey matter.  A preserved brain that sits in a jar on a shelf usually has a uniform white, gray or even yellowish hue due to the preservative chemicals or resins that are used.  A living, pulsing brain like the one currently residing in your skull isn’t a dull, bland gray color, it is white, black and a deep red and the human brain is not firm, it is soft and jelly-like.  There are ten billion nerve cells and almost one hundred billion smaller supporting cells in your brain.  That gives you more power than a computer and it comes in a smaller package.

Only about ten percent of your brain’s neurons are actually firing at any given time.  Your brain has many functions, every part of your brain has a different purpose, and all of your neurons are busy working all the time, so the other 90% that are not actually firing are not useless filler that are just idly standing by. Magnetic resonance imaging shows that most of the human brain is active most of the time.  In the course of a day, you will use just about every part of your brain.  A brain that is challenged or mentally stimulated will incur less of a risk of having memory problems.

Arthur Conon Doyle said, “I consider that a man’s brain originally is like a little empty attic, and you have to stock it with such furniture as you choose.  A fool takes in all the lumber of every sort that he comes across, so that the knowledge which might be useful to him gets crowded out, or at best is jumbled up with a lot of other things, so that he has a difficulty in laying his hands upon it.  Now the skillful workman is very careful indeed as to what he takes into his brain-attic.  He will have nothing but the tools which may help him in doing his work, but of these he has a large assortment, and all in the most perfect order.  It is a mistake to think that that little room has elastic walls and can distend to any extent.  Depend upon it there comes a time when for every addition of knowledge you forget something that you knew before.  It is of the highest importance, therefore, not to have useless facts elbowing out the useful ones.”

Robin Williams said, “God gave men a penis and a brain, but unfortunately not enough blood supply to run both at the same time.”  Every human is born with a brain, but only those who learn how to use their brain will have a mind.

Written for November 8, 2017 by Linda G Hill Life in progress One-Liner Wednesday – This is your Brain.