To what extent are humans optimized? Compared to the most efficient method of land mobility (that still retains all the same functionality e.g. ability to climb stairs) how efficient are human legs? Compared to the most efficient way to take in their respective types of data, how efficient are human eyes, ears, etc?
Most importantly, compared to the most efficient way to do the types of calculations it does, how efficient are human brains/neurons etc.? Obviously, digital computers are much more efficient at the types of computations they do. With semiconductors as an obvious counterexample, we can be fairly certain that any digital computation human brains do is not even close to the theoretical maximum efficiency it could have. But I've heard some say that human brains might use certain types of analog computation at least in part. Is it possible that the analog parts of human brains are even e.g. 10 percent as efficient as a maximally efficient version of computational substrate designed for a similar purpose?
Obviously, all the answers to this will probably be well within the realm of conjecture. Unless, that is, anyone actually does have some sort of publication going into detail about this type of thing, but I doubt it. I'd still like to see what this community cares to predict about this subject/offer as conjecture.
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If the question is "how good are human brains compared to alternatives" ... given we know basically nothing about how either of these actually work, in the sense of 'creating large-scale knowledge or behavior', there's not really anything we can say?
"Substrate"-wise, presumably if neurons are "doing something" superconducting wires, or just silicon, could "do" that much faster, action potentials are quite a few orders of magnitude away from optimal for transmitting a few bits, either in energy or time. But I'm not sure how that relates to the overall question.
There is a lesswrong post with ~200 upvotes that goes into detail on this. Unfortunately, it's, as far as I can tell, mostly bullshit, and is mostly applying mathematical ideas outside contexts they make sense / (unintentional) Eulering. https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/xwBuoE9p8GE7RAuhd/brain-efficiency-much-more-than-you-wanted-to-know
Appreciate the lesswrong link. I'm interested in conjecture and wild predictions and I don't particularly care about accuracy so its exactly what I'm looking for.
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