3 ms·
> I’ll give you almost instantaneous reflexes. This is almost probably not what you want. Your nerves respond pretty quickly already and you can do things fas
by gumby 3y ago
> I’ll give you almost instantaneous reflexes.
This is almost probably not what you want. Your nerves respond pretty quickly already and you can do things faster than you can think about them (e.g. catching a ball) so there's more to the computation than the "CPU".
I have read that the myelin sheath on your nerves is thicker at birth then as an adult. The theory (not mine!) is that as it thins the capacitance goes down and perhaps this helps keep the transmission time more constant as yu grow, so that what you have learned about walking, catching a ball, drinking hot coffee from a cup continues to work. Imperfectly -- kids are clumsy -- but enough that you can quickly adapt and not have to keep learning all over again.
- lifeisstillgood 3y agoSo if as a child I learn to send a signal to my hand to move out to catch the ball, the signal takes X microseconds to travel from brain down my arm to my and and "clasp" But as an adult / teen my arm is now a foot or more longer. So the signal would take x+y microseconds to get to my hand - but if the resistance of the nerves reduces it's signal is faster and back to x microseconds That's brilliant
- rbanffy 3y ago> But as an adult / teen my arm is now a foot or more longer. It was a lifetime of tiny adjustments. We'd be lost in our adult bodies if it were a sudden transition. As a teen, I was observably clumsier than I was as a small kid.