Biologists investigated whether the speed of thought exceeds the speed of light.

According to a popular belief, human thought is considered to be one of the fastest phenomena in nature. Many even argue that light, which travels at a speed of 300,000 kilometers per second, is slower than thought, which is perceived as "instantaneous." However, recent research has challenged this common notion. Scientists from Caltech measured the speed at which humans process information and found that fundamental cognitive processes are significantly slower not only than the speed of light but also than low-speed internet connections.

2024-12-27 10:01:29https://naked-science.ru/article/biology/mysl-bystree-sveta

Many contemporary studies focus on thinking and other cognitive processes. According to one of them, physical activity allows for more creative thinking. Another study demonstrated that people actually struggle to dream.

Experts from the California Institute of Technology in the USA investigated the popular claim that humans think faster than light travels. The results of the study, which, according to the scientists, explain the "slowness of being," were published in the scientific journal Neuron.

The authors of the paper, drawing on information theory and existing research on behavior, measured how quickly the human brain processes information during reading, writing, playing video games, and solving a Rubik's Cube. It turned out that on average, people think at a speed of 10 bits per second, whereas even the speed of slow internet, which does not allow for streaming low-quality video, is 100 megabits (over 100 million bits) per second.

“This is an extremely small number. Every moment we extract only 10 bits from a trillion bits perceived by our senses, using these 10 bits to understand the world and make decisions,” the authors of the study explained.

Based on the findings, the scientists speculated on why the brain processes only one thought at a time, while sensory systems can handle multiple streams of information simultaneously. The fact that, for instance, a chess player cannot consider multiple strategies at once while planning their next moves may be linked to the evolutionary logic of the brain.

According to previous studies, the first creatures to develop a nervous system primarily used their brains to find food and escape predators. The authors of the new paper elaborated:

“Our ancestors chose an ecological niche where the world evolves slowly enough to ensure survival. In fact, 10 bits per second are only necessary in the worst situations, and for most of the time, our environment changes much more slowly.”

The research not only tested a popular belief but also questioned the effectiveness of "brain-computer" interfaces. It was assumed that such projects would enable people to communicate faster than during ordinary conversations or written exchanges. However, the data obtained indicates that the brain's information processing speed would remain at the same level—10 bits per second.