Questions tagged [brain]

For questions dealing with the central nervous system, which includes the brain and spinal cord.

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What would a billion years feel to an immortal human or alien? [closed]

Let’s say human lifespan could be extended indefinitely and we could live for billions of years. We also figured out Neurocybernetics and more efficient data storage to augment our memory storage ...
Max's user avatar
  • 569
17 votes
18 answers
5k views

What would be a way to make uploading a mind into a computer an actual transfer instead of just making a copy?

I want to create a story about mind uploading, but I am completely convinced that even if you could transfer the contents of your brain to a computer emulation and then run it, it will always be a ...
Max's user avatar
  • 569
8 votes
6 answers
4k views

How are custom organs controlled by the brain?

In various sci fi settings you'll often see soldiers that have been modified beyond their baseline human level. Sometimes they are genetically grown this way, but other times they're modified as ...
FIRES_ICE's user avatar
  • 2,963
3 votes
5 answers
319 views

How would a creatures brain anatomy evolve to avoid brain damage?

I’m trying to create a horned creature that uses its head to head-butt much like a ram, but I’m curious about what kind of evolutionary trait would need to come about to greatly reduce the chance for ...
Bija's user avatar
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4 votes
1 answer
383 views

Symbiotic brain [closed]

I like to take mythological humanoid creatures and reimagine them in multiple species of primates. For instance, wendigos are just skinny-but-strong gigantopithecus that wear bones/skull of their prey....
lollo259's user avatar
  • 433
2 votes
2 answers
379 views

Feasibility of a convergent neural code across species?

I've got a sort of "mind-reading" system involving interpretation of electric fields/impulses in the brain, basically an advanced BCI (brain-computer interface), but the key point of this ...
inkwell87's user avatar
  • 889
7 votes
7 answers
2k views

How can robots that eat people to take their consciousness deal with eating multiple people?

Picture this: An AI has taken over the world with the directive "keep humans alive while trying to maximize both their happiness and efficiency of resource utilization." Unfortunately, it ...
Lee Nagel's user avatar
1 vote
2 answers
83 views

Can technology that prompts or inhibits neuron firing be able to add/alter brain pathways and behavior?

Imagine I had a bunch of little molecules or electrodes or chips or something of the sort, which were outfitted with the ability to attach to brain cells, receive specific electric signal/field ...
inkwell87's user avatar
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2 votes
3 answers
256 views

Would a genetically-inserted “memory” be present in all neurons? Or just specific neurons?

So a hypothetical concept I’ve been playing with lately involves the “RNA memory transfer/storage” hypothesis, recently notably demonstrated in slugs a few years back which made a few headlines. The ...
inkwell87's user avatar
  • 889
3 votes
5 answers
1k views

This drug can rewire the brain and “insta-teach”. How fast can I make it work?

I’ve got a nice new technique that, to put it simply, uses a sort of drug to target neurons, pump out more receptors and/or transmitters, and alter connectivity among brain cells, allowing the brain’s ...
inkwell87's user avatar
  • 889
0 votes
2 answers
141 views

How could a brain survival system work?

Suppose that the technology to re-grow bodies exists but either for technical or ethical reasons creating a digital copy of the brain that can be uploaded is not possible. How could you create an ...
Adam Kabbeke's user avatar
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23 votes
16 answers
15k views

Can too much data cause brain failure?

A brain is sort of like a computer. It stores information, has multiple processes, and can compute and calculate. I have learned in computer science intro about a program that used to be popular for ...
user avatar
3 votes
4 answers
701 views

What would be required to allow a human brain to function for thousands of years?

Could a human brain be kept functioning (thinking, alive, etc.) for thousands of years by use of some sort of machine or technology by the machine preserving the brain? What would such a machine have ...
Kal Madda's user avatar
  • 1,851
14 votes
7 answers
3k views

Brain download: how to avoid the multiple copies problem?

In a context where downloading the brain of a person has or is about to become possible, there is a problem looming at the horizon: once there is a copy, there is the chance of getting multiple copies....
L.Dutch's user avatar
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1 vote
1 answer
102 views

How to download the mind once it has been uploaded [closed]

So, continuing along the basis of this earlier question: Justifying why mind uploading destroys the brain, these aspiring immortals now have a full computer emulation of their subject’s brain. (Big ...
user98816's user avatar
  • 8,459
14 votes
16 answers
5k views

Justifying why mind uploading destroys the brain

So, in the relatively-far future, humans, in their endless quest for immortality, develop a form of mind uploading. This involves scanning the brain, cell by cell, and creating an electronic model of ...
user98816's user avatar
  • 8,459
8 votes
5 answers
2k views

Would a brain transplant suffer immunorejection if the new body was cloned from the original?

So, having rejected mind uploading in their quest for immortality, the people of my worldbuilding project now seek to develop brain transplanting. The main problem is immunorejection; if you simply ...
user98816's user avatar
  • 8,459
0 votes
4 answers
131 views

Amazon drones controlled by magic, how to control as many as possible with your brain given low technology level but runic alternative to coding [closed]

My research: In the real world the technology to read and interpret the human brain has been arround for almost a century now and the idea of controlling devices with your brain has been around for ...
user avatar
-3 votes
5 answers
198 views

Objectively most efficient way to increase focus?

If resistance is how long you can go doing physically exausting stuff before you die or get overtraining fever then focus is the analogue to magic, your ability to perform magically exhausting stuff ...
user avatar
0 votes
4 answers
135 views

What is the most plausible way for a neuralchip to be invented in a post-apocalyptic society?

I'm creating a RPG game set in 2058, after a parallel history scenario where the 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis turned hot, and civilization underwent full scale nuclear war. The game is set in the People'...
Entropy 's user avatar
1 vote
2 answers
153 views

Can my iron neurons work like a biological quantum computer? [closed]

I decided to describe the evolution of scientifically plausible alien creatures and thought about it and decided to make sure that their neurons contained a large amount of elemental iron, which ...
Frank Thompson 4's user avatar
7 votes
3 answers
242 views

What mechanism for the transmission of signals between neurons can be faster than our sodium-potassium?

I decided to describe the evolution of scientifically plausible alien creatures and thought about how alien neurons can transmit signals to each other and is it possible in theory some mechanism that ...
Frank Thompson 4's user avatar
-1 votes
1 answer
70 views

Virtual reality via neural stimulation [closed]

I just learned that scientists are able to stimulate certain regions of a person's brain to make them feel certain emotions or move parts of their body. I was wondering if it would be possible to ...
Alphys's user avatar
  • 193
3 votes
1 answer
120 views

Physiological consequences of being a brain in a jar plugged into a robot body [duplicate]

In an alterante universe where Nazi Germany conquered the world, an unfortunate soul has ended up like Cliff Steele from Doom Patrol; his brain has been removed from its original body by a mad nazi ...
Brinstar77's user avatar
  • 1,487
-1 votes
1 answer
96 views

Quantitying religious concept [closed]

Once upon a time, there were people on a planet far away who believed that our galaxy was a brain. Each star would be a neuron. In the absence of wormholes and other ways to get around the speed of ...
Tusky Emonay's user avatar
1 vote
2 answers
144 views

What would the recovery period for a five year coma look like? [closed]

So, I've been kicking around a sort-of "return from another world" idea for a bit now. Basically, the MC gets the crap kicked out of him and ends up in a deep coma with very little brain ...
Rurudo's user avatar
  • 181
3 votes
2 answers
225 views

Physical consequences of being a brain in a jar plugged into a robot body [closed]

Some unfortunate soul has ended up like Cliff Steele from Doom Patrol; his brain has been removed from its original body, suspended in a vat of life-sustaining liquid, and wired up to a new, robotic ...
Brinstar77's user avatar
  • 1,487
3 votes
2 answers
206 views

Sensory Extension Overwhelming? [closed]

Amplifying the sensibility and spectrum of your senses, and even adding new senses altogether, in order to perceive the most information from the environment is a common theme in my futuristic setting,...
Paulo Raposo's user avatar
  • 1,221
4 votes
2 answers
134 views

How would the human brain aid a human computer interface/implant in solving complex problems in realtime/dynamic uses [closed]

Hooking up a computer to the human brain or somehow connecting the brain to a computer is nothing new in the realm of sci fi literature. But say you want to merge the human brain and a computer ...
FIRES_ICE's user avatar
  • 2,963
3 votes
2 answers
358 views

programing genetic memory (or; the hard way to get your kids to clean their room.)

Is genetic memory in higher life forms real? if so can, in theory, an organism be programed for a specific behavior or set of skills? Ie: if genetic memory is a mechanism that does exist, at what ...
Gillgamesh's user avatar
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13 votes
2 answers
2k views

A person has composite memories from countless pasts - how would you detect this with modern medical equipment?

So in this scenario our character is just a regular man in his 30's. Multiverses exist, and our character exists in countless other universes, each variant of himself having different life experiences....
Dakacha's user avatar
  • 465
4 votes
3 answers
931 views

How quickly can a disembodied human brain space travel and be fine?

In my current worldbuilding project, humans travel through space by putting their brains into advanced, miniature vehicles that supply the brain with the bare-minimum chemicals, electricity, etc, and ...
Zanly's user avatar
  • 119
2 votes
1 answer
134 views

Regenerating brain could get rewired differently after getting damaged?

So, the protagonist of the story I'm developing is not a normal human, she was basically a guinea pig for illegal genetic experiments when this whole CRISPR thing was still a novelty(AKA "now&...
Paulo Raposo's user avatar
  • 1,221
-4 votes
1 answer
81 views

Information necessary to simulate a brain virtually?

In the world i'm developing it's already possible to periodically scan your brain so you can keep a backup in case of you dying (people have rejuvenating treatments but they can still die of unnatural ...
Paulo Raposo's user avatar
  • 1,221
2 votes
3 answers
157 views

Hearing effects of shifted time perception.(Bullet-Time) [closed]

Edit: It has come to my attention that "Critical Flicker Frequency" only applies to vision, but the perception of time of animals is measured by this method and i didn't know how to phrase ...
Paulo Raposo's user avatar
  • 1,221
8 votes
8 answers
2k views

Idea for a more "efficient" brain?

So if my incredibly basic understanding of how brains across animal species work is that the brain is compartmentalised into a bunch of different sectors that handle things like sight, language, fight ...
Johnyaazz's user avatar
16 votes
10 answers
4k views

Is mind downloading to a human brain possible?

If we assume that the human mind can be uploaded to a storage device could that mind be transferred back to a human brain? Upload is defined as copying the experiences, skills, emotional tenor, and ...
Englishman Bob's user avatar
2 votes
2 answers
89 views

How long would it take for evolution to create creatures with same body but different brain of humans?

In a story I am writing, I want to have a creature that is physically very similar to humans, yet has a different brain (e.g. smaller size and smoother). How many generations would it take for ...
violetorigin's user avatar
0 votes
1 answer
107 views

Can this mind control parasite work? [closed]

I want to create a hard science parasite, this parasite consists of a symbiosis of a slime mold and neurons, it enters the host and branches by attaching to the organism. Could my organism control a ...
Zenobia Zainib's user avatar
8 votes
4 answers
3k views

Can a brain in a jar be killed or have a reduced lifespan from psychological trauma alone?

I have an original world, Hell, who I credit H. P. Lovecraft for the inspiration. I am not asking a question about any of Lovecraft's published worlds. Inspired by The Whisperer in Darkness I have ...
Vogon Poet's user avatar
  • 8,159
3 votes
2 answers
158 views

Post-mortem brain digitization of the future: HDD backup?

Far in the future, can there be some kind of mechanism where we can slice through a waxed brain and image every synapse, copy the neural map into a computer and find memories and personality traits ...
bandybabboon's user avatar
  • 1,128
9 votes
7 answers
4k views

How much would a giant brain pay to make you its slave?

In my world, there is a giant brain that possesses a large amount (but not a majority) of the world's neurons. The problem is, it doesn't have a body, so it can't move and it has to pay other ...
Jacob Valdez's user avatar
39 votes
16 answers
7k views

How can a gigantic creature combat neural lag?

For the purposes of the question, it doesn't really matter if the creature's a continent-sized amoeba or a particularly large kaiju. Speed of thought is relatively painfully slow in organic creatures, ...
Darth Biomech's user avatar
4 votes
4 answers
177 views

data crystal ready, please insert the crystal inside your brain to continue. Wait! but where?

How to get smarter? easy! poke 2 holes in your brain and build a computer around the holes, the computer reads data from some usbs and sends the information to your brain, remove the usb and you also ...
Drien RPG's user avatar
  • 373
9 votes
7 answers
2k views

Do you need a new brain to see new colors?

Humans can see 3 colors, sometimes we can see more one color at the same time, this creates 7 variations of colors and a few million different shades of those same 7 colors. blue, red, green = mix ...
Drien RPG's user avatar
  • 373
3 votes
2 answers
101 views

Focus mode side effects

Premise : The brain is expensive to maintain, 20% of your food expenses go to your brain so it doesn't rot and die of hunger, just to maintain an idle brain. Focusing on something burns way more ...
Drien RPG's user avatar
  • 373
0 votes
3 answers
244 views

How can a hive mind be prevented from learning new information? [closed]

Entities from the spiritual realm must incarnate into the mortal world in order to communicate with humanity. This is done through the use of avatars, which are humanoid shells containing the soul of ...
Incognito's user avatar
  • 38.5k
1 vote
1 answer
372 views

If the blindfold on a healthy old man that was never removed since birth is taken down, would the man recognize what he saw? [closed]

I know our brain somehow managed to upright the inverted images our eyes sees, also there's tons of optical illusions out there that are based on what we knew and experienced. Then if those so called ...
user6760's user avatar
  • 46.4k
2 votes
5 answers
134 views

What tests might someone do to assess possible brain damage from time travel? [closed]

I have a character who travels in time, but after making major jumps (like 100 years forward), she begins experiencing side effects—first nose bleeds, but the symptoms begin to increase to things like ...
Jay Dee's user avatar
  • 492
2 votes
2 answers
132 views

Brain-Controlling Bacteria

As a Star Trek fan, I’ve been fascinated about the concept of the Borg and how they have used nanotechnology to assimilate every valuable species. They not only incorporate their technology into their ...
mkinson's user avatar
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