Random thoughts from Tuesday's classes.

- Often people like to compare the human brain to a computer. It is a fast operating mega-system that is responsible for coordinating all of our bodily functions. However, one of my professors disagrees with this statement. This professor said computers will never be like brains (or vise versa) because of two properties: humor and uncertainty. To date, scientists cannot figure out how humor works in the brains. Moreover, every culture has their own sense of humor, which complicates things more. As for uncertainty, if I were to ask you, what is the exact population of Sydney, Australia? You would probably wait two seconds and then say "I don't know". We are able to quickly admit that we don't know something without sorting through every memory we have stored in our long term memory. But with a computer, the computer would not admit to not knowing something until it searched its entire hard-drive for the answer. Only after searching everywhere will the computer admit to "not knowing". On the other hand, how do human brains know that they don't know something without much thought at all?

- In Switzerland, it is illegal to keep goldfish in round fish bowls. Goldfish are smart creatures and are fully aware of their surroundings. When placed in boring, round fish bowls, they are driven to insanity as they are constantly trying process their surroundings, but there is nothing for them to identify or recognize as unique.

- Reflexive Memory: this is the part of your memory where you recall things automatically. You store things in this memory after lots of repetition. This memory stores procedural related skills. An example of something in this memory: driving a car. With practice, you learn how, and thus driving a car because an automatic task.

- Declarative Memory: to store things in this memory, concious attention is required. This memory is devoted to higher levels of thinking. An example of something in this memory: learning the bones of the human body. Practice won't be helpful here, but instead hours of deliberate studying will be required to put the bones into this memory.