# How many gigs are in my head?!? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [August 26, 2000, 1:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-gigs-are-in-my-head/30783 "2000-08-26T01:04:31Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 11\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![tennents](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/fbc32d/32.png) [@tennents](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tennents)\ **Post date:** [August 26, 2000, 1:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-gigs-are-in-my-head/30783/1 "2000-08-26T01:04:31Z")
Not entirely sure if a comparison can be made between a hard-drive and human brain, but if so, How much memory does a person have ?!? ---
**Author:** ![iampunha](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/74df32/32.png) [@iampunha](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/iampunha)\ **Post date:** [August 26, 2000, 1:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-gigs-are-in-my-head/30783/2 "2000-08-26T01:10:36Z")
Depends. Do you remember important birthdays/events and such? If not, you need more memory 🙂 Maybe you can buy some. ---
**Author:** ![silent\_rob](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e9a140/32.png) [@silent\_rob](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/silent_rob)\ **Post date:** [August 26, 2000, 1:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-gigs-are-in-my-head/30783/3 "2000-08-26T01:30:35Z")
This is a really good question. You’ve got to think about how much information is in the brain. For language alone, the concepts, and such that are there is a massive amount. Think how many functions it takes just to communicate. Just to move your tongue to make coherent sentences your brain could be making a 1000 commands all at once. Probably more. Just typing something on the computer, every muscle that it takes to operate your hands and how they’re all working at the same time. Plus, all of the free floating thoughts that you hardly ever use. How many places, people, and things you can remember in your lifetime. I think every image would take up quite a bit of room on a computer. All of the names of place, remembering how to get to places. Think how many songs you can sing. Also new thoughts continually form from old memories. Well, I can’t think anymore right now. Makes my brain hurt. Sorry I couldn’t have been more help. I would say, though, that gigs might be too low of a unit. And if not, then a you’d have a very high number of gigs in your head. ---
**Author:** ![astro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/9dc877/32.png) [@astro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/astro)\ **Post date:** [August 26, 2000, 1:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-gigs-are-in-my-head/30783/4 "2000-08-26T01:37:12Z")
Human brain capacity = megs/gigs/terabytes etc questions are currently unanswerable in a meaningful sense, insofar as a comprehensive understanding of the way the human brain stores information is only in it’s infancy. There is also the fact that they are inherently, completely different information processing and retrieval systems and effective bit for bit comparisons between the two would probably be meaningless. ---
**Author:** ![iampunha](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/74df32/32.png) [@iampunha](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/iampunha)\ **Post date:** [August 26, 2000, 1:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-gigs-are-in-my-head/30783/5 "2000-08-26T01:40:14Z")
I think there’s also a question, somewhat posed by silent\_rob, about the number of connections you’d have to have. A PC doesn’t have as many as the average brain. Also, different parts of the brain can function independently of eachother . . . I haven’t seen this to be the case with a computer. Thinking in terms of bytes . . . the memories from one day alone, in 654X654 res would take up a load of gigs. Terabytes, probably. You’re talking about zip disks full of the serial numbers of other zip disks here. ---
**Author:** ![Sith\_Sheriff\_Brody](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a6a055/32.png) [@Sith\_Sheriff\_Brody](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sith_Sheriff_Brody)\ **Post date:** [August 26, 2000, 4:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-gigs-are-in-my-head/30783/6 "2000-08-26T04:55:47Z")
Sounds Johnny Mnemonic-ish. You planning on being a courier? 🙂 -SSB ---
**Author:** ![Geek\_Mecha](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/ecae2f/32.png) [@Geek\_Mecha](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Geek_Mecha)\ **Post date:** [August 26, 2000, 5:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-gigs-are-in-my-head/30783/7 "2000-08-26T05:30:06Z")
I’ll spare everyone the fascinating psych lecture on the subject. 🙂 The computer/memory analogy is deceptive. Computer hard drives have limits. The human brain doesn’t have a real set capacity. (Okay, if you _really_ must compare: I read it’s been estimated that the human brain can hold about 1 billion bits’ worth of information in memory. But that’s just one dude’s estimation, and I doubt anyone’s really put any serious research time into strengthening the analogy.) Also, as astro said, the encoding, manipulation, and retrieval processes are quite different. Your computer is incapable of independently associating a file’s content with similar others; your brain can do that easily with memories, and often does. ---
**Author:** ![eggo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/c4cdca/32.png) [@eggo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/eggo)\ **Post date:** [August 26, 2000, 6:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-gigs-are-in-my-head/30783/8 "2000-08-26T06:08:30Z")
I posed a similar question, comparing my brain to a CPU, and while thinking that up, I thought of a way to see how much you already have stored: 1)write down **EVERYTHING** you remember. 2)make notes of how you remember those things (like, do you remember a still image, a video, a video with sound, etc) 3)figure out how big each of these memories would be if stored in the highest compression available. (if you have a memoryof a 10 min. video w/ sound, figure out how big a 10 min. AVI is when compressed) 4)add them all up this is all hypothetical of course, it would take years and years to simply complete the first step, by which time you would have new memories. you could guage your RAM by doing the same thing, but only write down the things in your short-term memory ---
**Author:** ![capacitor](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/e47774/32.png) [@capacitor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/capacitor)\ **Post date:** [August 26, 2000, 7:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-gigs-are-in-my-head/30783/9 "2000-08-26T07:07:09Z")
Also, don’t forget about the number of gigabytes needed just to process eyesight and record images and visual motion, real-life and otherwise. ---
**Author:** ![bibliophage](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bibliophage/32/7615_2.png) [@bibliophage](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bibliophage)\ **Post date:** [August 26, 2000, 8:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-gigs-are-in-my-head/30783/10 "2000-08-26T08:40:57Z")
related thread: [Brain capacity](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?threadid=33363) **Cosmos** by Carl Sagan, pp 277, _ff._ > [@](#): > > …the human brain, in which perhaps a hundred trillion bits of information are stored… The equivalent of twenty million books is inside the heads of every one of us. ---
**Author:** ![jbird3000](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/aeb1de/32.png) [@jbird3000](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jbird3000)\ **Post date:** [August 26, 2000, 9:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-gigs-are-in-my-head/30783/11 "2000-08-26T21:02:08Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by eggo \* > \*\* > 1)write down **EVERYTHING** you remember. > \*\* I really do doubt you could write EVERYTHING you remember. Even if you had infinite time to do this, you’d be getting new memories of you writing down what you know… Your list: 1. My dog is small 2. I wrote “my dog is small” 3. I wrote “I wrote “my dog is small”” and so forth…