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AnonTechie [soylentnews.org] writes:

Thinking Slowly: The Paradoxical Slowness of Human Behavior

Caltech researchers [caltech.edu] have quantified the speed of human thought: a rate of 10 bits per second. However, our bodies' sensory systems gather data about our environments at a rate of a billion bits per second, which is 100 million times faster than our thought processes. This new study raises major new avenues of exploration for neuroscientists, in particular: Why can we only think one thing at a time while our sensory systems process thousands of inputs at once ?

A bit is a basic unit of information in computing. A typical Wi-Fi connection, for example, can process 50 million bits per second. In the new study, Zheng applied techniques from the field of information theory to a vast amount of scientific literature on human behaviors such as reading and writing, playing video games, and solving Rubik's Cubes, to calculate that humans think at a speed of 10 bits per second.

"This is an extremely low number," Meister says. "Every moment, we are extracting just 10 bits from the trillion that our senses are taking in and using those 10 to perceive the world around us and make decisions. This raises a paradox: What is the brain doing to filter all of this information?"

[...] The new quantification of the rate of human thought may quash some science-fiction futuristic scenarios. Within the last decade, tech moguls have suggested creating a direct interface between human brains and computers in order for humans to communicate faster than the normal pace of conversation or typing. The new study, however, suggests that our brains would communicate through a neural interface at the same speed of 10 bits per second.

[Journal Ref.]: The unbearable slowness of being: Why do we live at 10 bits/s ? [cell.com]

[Also Covered By]:
Technology Networks [technologynetworks.com]

Scientific American [scientificamerican.com]

New Atlas [newatlas.com]

Original Submission