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Could Our Brain Be a Decentralized Blockchain System?

3 points by utkarshs12 9y ago

Are all the nuerons in our brain interacting like a decentralized blockchain system to collectively make up our consciousness?

gus_massa 9y ago
No. The main idea of the blockchain is that each block has a hash of the previous block that has a hash of the previous block that has a hash of the previous block ... so you get a chain of blocks. Also, each mining node has the complete information of the previous block and all the new transactions, so it can calculate the hash of the previous block and a hash of the new data and create the new block. Neurons have very few data available. They can sum, rest and make a small amount of delay and accumulation, but each neuron doesn't know the state of the whole brain and has no computational power to make a hash of it anyway.
- utkarshs12 9y ago
  Applying the idea of decentralization on a network of neurons was what I got curious about. But I understand the blockchain is what makes the decentralization work in the first place. And I agree, the idea of blockchain is to maintain this continuously growing database of transactions on every node. And if neurons have to work like a decentralized system, they've got to have a blockchain like storage. That doesn't seem workable like you pointed out. :)
BjoernKW 9y ago
Short answer: No. The blockchain essentially is a ledger, an accounting system. In order for that to work in a decentralised manner it's vital that each node have a complete copy of the data store and its history. The brain on the other hand isn't an accounting system. It's decentralised, too but its nodes - the neurons - serve a very different purpose than Blockchain nodes. They only need to 'know' about their immediate environment, i.e. the neurons around them. Therefore not only doesn't each neuron need to have a complete copy of the data available but it would rather be tremendously inefficient to do so.
- utkarshs12 9y ago
  I think the blockchain helps the transactions overcome trust issues due to fraudulent nodes on the decentralized network and thus there is a requirement of a complete copy of all the transactions to be present on each of the nodes. In a brain however, we may consider the neurons to be ideal nodes which will never act fraudulently. So if some data is stored on a neuron, all other neurons can completely trust that the data will not be tampered (due to lack of any motivation for a neuron to act fraudulently). That means we could skip the blockchain database part completely because 'trust' is naturally present in the network. Also now I'm not sure if there remains any further scope for us to apply the idea of decentralized operations to the functioning of the brain's neural network. Do point out if any ideas pop into your mind.
  - BjoernKW 9y ago
    Well, trustless trust is exactly the point of blockchain technology. If you can trust your participants anyway you don't need a blockchain. On the other hand, neurons aren't ideal nodes that never act fraudulently. There's plenty of false information or misfiring neurons in the brain. The brain is very good at error correction and heuristics, however. So, 'fraudulent' nodes aren't necessarily a problem.
- Kinnard 9y ago
  Blockchains can contain arbitrary data not just transaction messages . . .

3 points by utkarshs12 9y ago

Are all the nuerons in our brain interacting like a decentralized blockchain system to collectively make up our consciousness?

gus_massa 9y ago

No. The main idea of the blockchain is that each block has a hash of the previous block that has a hash of the previous block that has a hash of the previous block ... so you get a chain of blocks. Also, each mining node has the complete information of the previous block and all the new transactions, so it can calculate the hash of the previous block and a hash of the new data and create the new block. Neurons have very few data available. They can sum, rest and make a small amount of delay and accumulation, but each neuron doesn't know the state of the whole brain and has no computational power to make a hash of it anyway.

utkarshs12 9y ago
Applying the idea of decentralization on a network of neurons was what I got curious about. But I understand the blockchain is what makes the decentralization work in the first place. And I agree, the idea of blockchain is to maintain this continuously growing database of transactions on every node. And if neurons have to work like a decentralized system, they've got to have a blockchain like storage. That doesn't seem workable like you pointed out. :)

BjoernKW 9y ago

Short answer: No. The blockchain essentially is a ledger, an accounting system. In order for that to work in a decentralised manner it's vital that each node have a complete copy of the data store and its history. The brain on the other hand isn't an accounting system. It's decentralised, too but its nodes - the neurons - serve a very different purpose than Blockchain nodes. They only need to 'know' about their immediate environment, i.e. the neurons around them. Therefore not only doesn't each neuron need to have a complete copy of the data available but it would rather be tremendously inefficient to do so.

utkarshs12 9y ago
I think the blockchain helps the transactions overcome trust issues due to fraudulent nodes on the decentralized network and thus there is a requirement of a complete copy of all the transactions to be present on each of the nodes. In a brain however, we may consider the neurons to be ideal nodes which will never act fraudulently. So if some data is stored on a neuron, all other neurons can completely trust that the data will not be tampered (due to lack of any motivation for a neuron to act fraudulently). That means we could skip the blockchain database part completely because 'trust' is naturally present in the network. Also now I'm not sure if there remains any further scope for us to apply the idea of decentralized operations to the functioning of the brain's neural network. Do point out if any ideas pop into your mind.
- BjoernKW 9y ago
  Well, trustless trust is exactly the point of blockchain technology. If you can trust your participants anyway you don't need a blockchain. On the other hand, neurons aren't ideal nodes that never act fraudulently. There's plenty of false information or misfiring neurons in the brain. The brain is very good at error correction and heuristics, however. So, 'fraudulent' nodes aren't necessarily a problem.
Kinnard 9y ago
Blockchains can contain arbitrary data not just transaction messages . . .