Viewing a single comment thread. View all comments

clockercountwise333 t1_itt1jx7 wrote

"but a memory" seems a bit of a stretch - more like a buffer - as in there's latency between when something actually hits and the fully processed awareness of it hitting. not terribly shocking. we are, after all, biological computers. different between organisms as well - this is why it's hard for a human to swat a fly. they're "clocked" higher and that latency is much lower, thus way faster reaction time

30

sheerun t1_ituck5o wrote

Interestingly this buffer may not last half a second, but minutes, days, weeks, months, and years. This is: we perceive and act on world by using all of our past memory. Both are obvious things, but surprise is that they are very tightly connected. Catching a fly is not much different than deciding on very long term actions, decisions that require huge amount of past memory, instead of 1 second of it

4

metatronoplus t1_itwen2h wrote

Your catching a fly reference reminds me of something I figured out that helps me when trying to catch flies before they take off (or change directions mid flight). I don't try to predict which direction the fly is going to move in, instead I try to remember which way it goes, before I move my hand.

1

clockercountwise333 t1_itxu0f1 wrote

Indeed, it's quite complicated :) While the fly can react faster, we can react, slower, ...but potentially many moves ahead of it. I do not think of where the fly is going to go in one move, rather something more like the center point of where it could go in many moves. Their ability to move swiftly is higher, our ability to calculate complexity is higher. Amusingly, we are often evenly matched. Best not to seek each others demise if possible. --Mr. Miyagi

1