Mental Capacity

Paul Marshall · **Tue Apr 13, 2004 7:43 pm Mental Capacity**

Do you believe that the brain can store unlimited amounts of data? Or, do you think that there is a limit to knowledge? Scientists have pondered on this very subject for a LONG time, what do you think?

Starbuck · **Tue Apr 13, 2004 7:51 pm**

Well, if there is one thing I know, its that I know nothing at all, so I really can't say, therefore I remain nuteral, therefore, I don't vote.

Paul Marshall · **Tue Apr 13, 2004 7:54 pm**

DemonClassY · **Tue Apr 13, 2004 8:00 pm**

I dont think that there is, and if there is then I dont think that it is possible to reach that limit.

IntrepidIsMe · **Tue Apr 13, 2004 9:29 pm**

Of course there is a limit to how much a person can "take in" on a physical level.

Arellia · **Tue Apr 13, 2004 10:01 pm**

I don't think that there is, and even if there were, I doubt any Human is going to reach that point in the near future. As far as what we can get accomplished in the short time that we have, no, there isn't really a limit, far as I can see.

PrankishSmart · **Tue Apr 13, 2004 11:55 pm**

Of course their would be a limit, but it would be very large.

I'm sure someone could work out a mathmatical equation on how much the maximum data the brain could store given it's relative size.

Of course though when we forget long term things those pathways are avaliable to new data.

Oliver · **Wed Apr 14, 2004 2:46 am**

I'm sure our brain has limits. Limits in speed, memory capacity, growth, healing time, ...

It's just impossible that a brain could have an endless amount of memory space. However, I'm also sure that humans will never reach that limit. The memory capacity could be like 1000 times a life time... maybe more, who knows...?

Jeremy · **Wed Apr 14, 2004 7:56 am**

^ I have pretty much the same view. I remember reading somewhere that you remember everything that you read, do whatever, but that sometimes it is hidden so far back in your memory that you don't remember it as such.

sabertooth1217 · **Wed Apr 14, 2004 5:01 pm**

I think that there is a limit to knowledge, God made Humans not to be able to know everything. It says in the Bible that All are question will be answered after we make it to Heaven. Something we do not need to know. How was the universe made, Simple the Big Bang; But how did that start? There had to have been a being there, God. Most Reglious people belive that God has always been there, Including myself. It is to hard for some of us to comprenhend that there is a being so powerful to have always been. That is the limit. Sorry if this sounds to Reglious for some of you.

Kate Janeway · **Wed Apr 14, 2004 10:05 pm**

There is a limit to how much information the brain can store, and only 1% is actually used for long-term memory; if the brain stored every single datum it encountered, it would be overwhelmed. I think there is only 1% available to us because it's the nature of the brain/body to protect itself from such damage and overload. The amount of knowledge to be taken in, however, I believe is endless.

Puck · The Texan Joined: 05 Jan 2004 Posts: 5596

I would like to change my answer:

I think that there is a limit to mental capacity,and things we cannot comprehend, such as infinity, a vacume, space, absolute 0, etc.

However, besides these, I do not think that the human race will ever use all of the brain capacity that is possible.

Trekkie617 · **Wed Apr 14, 2004 11:05 pm**

^^I believe that I have used more than 1% of my brain, I think the 1% is like a general statement. I mean, the scientists who did the studing never studied me, so obviously they can't be sure that I'm a statistic.

Paul Marshall · **Wed Apr 14, 2004 11:12 pm**

Yeah, I guess yall are right, like PrankishSmart said before, old memories are replaced with new ones. I learned that in Psych ... So if this is true then it is impossible to learn everything because by the time you get a 1/16 of the way most of the stuff that you build up in your head will start to get pushed out (or forgotten) to clear way for newly learned things.

Jeff Miller · **Thu Apr 15, 2004 2:30 am**

I don't think there is any limit

Monkey · **Thu Apr 15, 2004 2:51 am**

it says in Colossians 2 that through God we can have true infinet knowldge
(and you see from my spelling that i have yet amassed it

)

Josi Rockholt · **Thu Apr 15, 2004 8:56 am**

I don't think there is any limit on how much we can learn. We repress a lot of things that we don't want to remember, but they can show up at certain times, after something similar happens and triggers it. Learned that in psych and it's true. I experienced it last night.

jbering69 · Lieutenant Joined: 09 Mar 2004 Posts: 137 Location: Canada

I believe that everything that we input through our sensory organs is stored in memory, however I do not believe it is infinite, nor do I believe we can completely access this information as the sheer amount of it would drive a person insane.

Josi Rockholt · **Thu Apr 15, 2004 2:31 pm**

That's why we repress things. It's still there, but we don't always remember it.

jonathan95 · **Thu Apr 15, 2004 5:17 pm**

I personaly beleave that there is no limit like a pc we delete stuff we do not wish to remember even if we dont know we are doing it, even though we do not take in every single pice of information we do on a subconsious leval,

acording to a lot of texts knowledgs is power, people who know lots of suff are more powerful in most ways even if it is just how to manipulate other people.

I do not beleave we have a limit. we are smarter than any pc ever built and we can do things that no other living creature can do or non living creature (techno style) so we are so far the best this planet has to offer as inhaits (things that live on a planet).

Our abilities are so far gone that no one alive to day can tell us other wise there is so much we do not know about our selfs. we only use a very small portion of our brian some say that we have the ability to be able to move objects with our mind or read other peoples minds some even say we can see the future through our mind if we used all of our brain the simple truth is we do not know what we are capable of because nobody has ever reached the FULL potensial of the human brain the human brain the best thing on this earth.

Tech · **Thu Apr 15, 2004 8:48 pm**

Great post, Jonathan.

I personally think our memory capacity might have a limit, but we won't ever used up that much space to reach it.

Kate Janeway · **Thu Apr 15, 2004 9:41 pm**

PrankishSmart · **Fri Apr 16, 2004 9:02 am**

No no, it's physically impossible to have an infinate power of knowledge.

With a computer, binary code (1's and 0's) are used to represent data. Now our brains probally don't work off binary, but given that nothing is smaller than an atom, there are only so many atoms we can fit into our brains. If there was no limit on how small something could be, i'm sure our capacity could be infinate.

Puck · The Texan Joined: 05 Jan 2004 Posts: 5596

what about the parts that make up an atom? aren't they smaller than the actual atom itself

Kate Janeway · **Fri Apr 16, 2004 8:05 pm**

^That's true, but the point is, it's only so big, and then you can't have anything smaller.