Wow, you ask a simple question about computers and things sure get geeky quickly and all from asking: 'If the human body was a computer, what would our specs be?'
I asked this question about 20 years ago and as Computers have become so much more powerful since (Moore's Law?), i dug out my notes and decided to ask it again with it solely based on Brain (CPU), Heart (Power Supply), Input devices Eyes and Ears (Camera, Microphone), and Memory (Hard Drive).
The answer i got this time was the estimated processing speed of the brain would be 1 exaFLOP (86 billion neurons and roughly 200 trillion synapses simultaneously) and a storage capacity of roughly 2.5 million gigabytes.
A Computer power supply (PCU) typically has an average lifetime of 10 -15 years while a human heart comes with a lifetime guarantee.
We would use 20 watts of power Consumption and our Nervous System send nerve impulses at around 100 meters per second while the computer equivalent is a Motherboard which sends signals at roughly 200,000,000 meters per second.
Our Short Term memory can hold up to 7 pieces of information simultaneously while computer RAM can hold 2-8 TB of information and every time a computer reads a file from RAM, the file remains unchanged but when a human retrieves a memory, the brain often introduces false details over time.
To save to Long Term Memory takes a computer milliseconds, the human brain requires hours or days (mostly during deep sleep) to physically alter synapse strengths and lock in memories.
Our eyes are roughly equivalent to 125 megapixels while average computer cameras are around 8.3 megapixels.
Humans generally hear frequencies from 20 Hz to 20,000 Hz but standard computer microphones can hear in ultrasonic and infrasonic waves (below 20 Hz or above 20,000 Hz) that human ears cannot perceive.
What this all means then is...I think...Humans have better processing speed, last longer, use less power, more storage capacity and can see better but Computers hand us our arse at sending signals around, Short and Long term memory, memory retrieval and hearing.
That said we kick its arse at common sense, emotions, empathy and anything that requires complex physical dexterity so take that Computers, you haven't got us beat yet.
Sunday, 20 September 2026
Humans V Computers
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