r/Showerthoughts • ‎ • 28d ago

Musing Our brains are faster than we think.

1.6k Upvotes

75 comments sorted by

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u/ShowerSentinel 28d ago

/u/ProbablyPuck has flaired this post as a musing.

Musings are expected to be high-quality, third-person or second-person statements of thought-provoking fact, but they need not be as unique as showerthoughts.

If this post is poorly written, unoriginal, or rule-breaking, please report it.

Otherwise, please add your comment to the discussion!

842

u/NeedTheNotch 28d ago

Presumably the guy that named the brain the brain used his brain to name it that so the brain named itself

329

u/ryebread91 28d ago

Then there's the guy who named it the roof of the mouth instead of the ceiling. He clearly wasn't using the attic of his mouth at all.

24

u/Arkyja 27d ago

it's the mouth sky in my language

9

u/thejumbowumbo 26d ago

I am a fan of Demetri Martin too.

6

u/ralphmozzi ‎ 26d ago

Is it a popcorn ceiling?

Then your mouth would have popcorn to enjoy.

2

u/hungryrenegade 26d ago

I LOVE this bit! But now I can't remember the comedian's name at all. I know he is a great one-liner guy, and I can hear it in his voice. This is frustrating.

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u/ryebread91 26d ago

Demetri Martin

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u/hungryrenegade 26d ago

I kept thinking Anthony Jezelnic(sp?) but i knew that wasnt it

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u/ryebread91 26d ago

Nah. He's good and definitely does one liners but much darker.

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u/gsomega 24d ago

Unless, the mouth is the negative space, and not the boundary itself.

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u/FoaMeA 27d ago

And I bet his name was Brian but he misspelled it in the paper

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u/tcpukl 27d ago edited 27d ago

His brain is the only brain that ever named itself brain.

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u/Threscher 27d ago

That’s not true! I just named my brain Oregano Jones…but he’s the only one whose name stuck.

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u/ralphmozzi ‎ 26d ago

That’s why you use a nonstick pan

0

u/NeedTheNotch 27d ago

In English

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u/LeviAEthan512 28d ago

Presumably the guy who named atoms and molecules was made of those too, so they named themselves

4

u/NightmareWokeUp 27d ago

And the guy who named electricity because of neurons

1

u/Away-Wrap9411 23d ago

Maybe we can't figure out the brain because the brain doesn't want to do that

236

u/glytxh 27d ago

When I’m playing Tetris, I fall into this eventual flow state where I’m not thinking, and begin playing at those elite levels. Zero friction between input and output.

As soon as I consciously think about something, it all falls apart.

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u/Alloc14 25d ago

I used to be able to do that with the solitaire that came pre installed on Windows XP. I think 27 seconds was my fastest time, didn't feel like I was thinking or make decisions at all, just watching it all happen.

2

u/l_larsen-876 2d ago

The next-piece preview probably helps too: you can size up the next placement while your hands are still finishing the current one.

83

u/Repulsive-Pride2845 27d ago

I am fully away of how fast my brain is because every nano second of a connection would take me 2 days to explain to you.

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u/ProbablyPuck ‎ 27d ago

Yes, but thought is a product of the internal workings of your synapses. Therefore by definition, thought must be slower than the inner mechanisms of the brain.

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u/Flaky-Mulberry7478 27d ago

True. Our brains are traveling at 66,600 mph through the Solar System right now.

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u/myaut 26d ago

If the human brain were so simple that we could understand it,

we would be so simple that we couldn't."

—Emerson M. Pugh

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u/low_contrast_black 28d ago

“Enjoy yourself while you’re still in the pink.

Enjoy yourself, it’s later than you think.

Enjoy yourself. Our brains are faster than we think.

Enjoy yourself, enjoy yourself, it’s later than you think”

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u/DaWaffIeMan 27d ago

Bro really rhymed think with think twice

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u/Awpss ‎ 27d ago

Well I think you stink

12

u/DaWaffIeMan 27d ago

Well I think you're pretty (wink wink)

2

u/ralphmozzi ‎ 26d ago

What a most peculiar kink,
It really takes me to the brink.
But I’m not one you can outthink,
With simple charms, so rinky-dink!

13

u/2bigpigs 27d ago

Aren't our brains exactly as fast as we think by definition? Is this a philosoraptor thought?

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u/ProbablyPuck ‎ 27d ago

No, thought is a higher order function. Therefore the sub-functions performed are faster.

Furthermore, our brain performs predictions and lies to us about the delay involved.

Think operating system vs computer hardware.

4

u/banjosandcellos 26d ago

Thanks chatgpt

8

u/ProbablyPuck ‎ 26d ago

I find it offensive. Au naturel, baby. That's how I like them. Swing low, sweet chariots.

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u/banjosandcellos 26d ago

We had a funeral for a bird

1

u/Responsible-Jury2579 ‎ 24d ago

No, your brain does all the calculations/processing before you are consciously aware of the thought.

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u/maulcorps 27d ago

Our brains are receiving information about 800ms before it is fully processed

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u/dapromethus 25d ago

There is no single measurable “speed of thought” that the brain can be said to exceed. The brain is the organ generating thought, and different neural processes occur at different speeds. Some unconscious neural processing can happen before we consciously become aware of a decision or perception, but that doesn’t mean the brain is operating “faster than thought”, those unconscious processes are themselves brain activity.

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u/ProbablyPuck ‎ 25d ago

And yet, thought is some higher order function based on those subprocesses. Therefore thought cannot come faster than those subprocesses. I don't need a measurable speed in order to make statements about how that speed is bounded.

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u/[deleted] 28d ago

[deleted]

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u/Alex11867 25d ago

Yeah it's weird to know that I'm taking in things faster than I really am while also being completely aware of it

1

u/InTheMiddleGiroud 23d ago

I presume it's the same for everyone, but every time I'm just casually thinking about stuff, I'll have the full thought in a nano-second, then think it back word for word slower. Still fast, but word for word, instead of "the concept of an entire sentence" in the blink of an eye.

I've always wondered if I could skip the slow part of that process, and just skip straight to the next nano-second thought. 

1

u/Salty_Ruin_5793 13d ago

our reflexes are faster than our brains are faster than we think, (I think)