--- title: "You’ll Laugh When You Hear How Many Bits Per Second the Human Brain Processes… Once Your Sluggish Human Brain Finally Comprehends It, That Is" description: "Researchers at Caltech have calculated exactly how fast the human brain processes information — and the numbers are hilariously low." date: "2024-12-21" modified: "2024-12-21" authors: - name: "Victor Tangermann" job_title: "Senior Editor" link: "https://futurism.com/authors/victor" url: "https://futurism.com/neoscope/human-brain-bits-per-second-thought" categories: - "Brain" - "Health & Medicine" - "Neuroscience and Brain" tags: - "brain" - "human thought" - "sensory data" --- # You’ll Laugh When You Hear How Many Bits Per Second the Human Brain Processes… Once Your Sluggish Human Brain Finally Comprehends It, That Is ![Researchers at Caltech have calculated exactly how fast the human brain processes information — and the numbers are hilariously low.]() *\Image: Getty / Futurism\* Researchers at Caltech have calculated how fast the human brain processes information — and the number turned out to be hilariously low. As detailed in a [new study]() published in the journal *Neuron,* the team concluded that the speed of human thought is a measly ten bits per second. "This is an extremely low number," said team lead and Caltech biological sciences professor Markus Meier in a [statement](). While that may indeed sound agonizingly slow, the team also found that our bodies' sensory systems *also* process many orders of magnitude more bits per second of other information about our environment. "Every moment, we are extracting just 10 bits from the trillion that our senses are taking in and using those ten to perceive the world around us and make decisions," Meister explained. "This raises a paradox: What is the brain doing to filter all of this information?" Scientists have [estimated]() that our brains have 85 billion neurons, a third of which are used for high-level thinking. But since our brain is limited to just one thought at a time, the researchers' findings leave plenty of major questions unanswered. For one, what exactly is happening with all of those other neurons? Why are our thoughts so constrained compared to our sensory system? In their paper, titled "The unbearable slowness of being," the team suggested that evolution may be to blame. Brains used to be used by primitive beings primarily for navigation or to get away from predators. Over the eons, human brains evolved to follow a single "path" of thought at a time. "Human thinking can be seen as a form of navigation through a space of abstract concepts," the paper reads. "Our ancestors have chosen an ecological niche where the world is slow enough to make survival possible." "In fact, the 10 bits per second are needed only in worst-case situations, and most of the time our environment changes at a much more leisurely pace," the researchers wrote. The findings could have significant implications for our efforts to develop brain-computer interfaces, which may well also be restricted to this extreme speed limit. In the paper, the team singled out multi-hyphenate billionaire Elon Musk's [lofty claims]() regarding the capabilities of his [startup Neuralink's device](), giving him a harsh reality check. "Based on the research reviewed here regarding the rate of human cognition, we predict that Musk’s brain will communicate with the computer at about 10 bits/s," the team wrote. "Instead of the bundle of Neuralink electrodes, Musk could just use a telephone, whose data rate has been designed to match human language, which in turn is matched to the speed of perception and cognition." **More on the brain:** *[Doctors Intrigued by Treatment That Makes Dead Brains Show Signs of Life]()* ## Author I've been at Futurism since 2017, where my role has evolved to encompass design, writing, and increasingly editing. I've always been fascinated by space exploration and advanced transportation, which I've leaned into by interviewing luminaries in those fields while closely following the dimensions of policy and regulation that allow next-generation projects to succeed -- or, sometimes, to fail. I'm also keenly interested in the effects of generative AI on society, policies, and democratic institutions, as well as clean energy, physics and biology, and the vagaries of tech leadership. My work for Futurism has been cited by publications including Ars Technica, Gizmodo, PC Magazine, Jalopnik, Fox News, and the New York Post. I spent my childhood living in locations including Manila, the Philippines, and Geneva, Switzerland, attended McGill University, and now live in Toronto, Canada. Before Futurism I worked at AskMen and a small photography studio. In my free time, I'm an avid gardener, foodie, and craft beer lover, as well as a maker of artisanal hot pepper sauces. I have a magnificent dog named Freida. ### Author social links [Bluesky]()