POV-Ray : Newsgroups : povray.off-topic : The game : Re: The game Server Time
29 Jul 2024 12:19:11 EDT (-0400)
  Re: The game  
From: Invisible
Date: 10 Apr 2012 10:15:43
Message: <4f84408f$1@news.povray.org>
> his brain multitasks so much that it's causing a delay in the aural
> feedback loop.

Hey, /everybody's/ brain multitasks quite a lot.

Many people apparently believe that the brain's only purpose is 
thinking. This is not actually true. The brain performs a vast array of 
functions, including:

- Monitoring (cranial) blood pressure and adjusting heart rate and blood 
vessel constriction accordingly.

- Monitoring (cranial) oxygen saturation and adjusting respiration rate 
accordingly.

- Generating the nerve impulses that actually make you breathe.

- Monitoring internal operating temperature, and modulating sweat 
output, hair erection, shivering and fat metabolism. (Some of these 
effects take place without neural input as well. Some of these effects 
are produced by hormones released under neural control.)

- Every single second, it receives input from millions of stretch 
receptors, and from this it can compute the exact current configuration 
of your skeleton. (They call it "proprioception".) This is how when you 
reach around a wall to press a light switch, you know exactly where you 
arm is, even if you can't actually see it.

- Every single second, it performs millions of computations and finely 
adjusts the stimulation levels of the myriad of muscles that hold your 
body upright and in balance. (If you've ever busted your back, you will 
realise that it is /impossible/ to rest your back muscles. Every time 
you move any part of your body, it uses your back muscles. As absurd as 
that sounds...)

- Every single second, it receives vast quantities of sensory data from 
almost every cubic inch of your body. This includes the nerves inside 
your teeth (Yes, there are nerves in there.), inside your digestive 
tract (I have personally eaten chilli so hot it made a physical 
sensation in my stomach lining), pain receptors inside your other 
internal organs (Ever had a heart attack? It hurts quite a lot, so 
clearly /something/ inside there has nerve endings!), and more. It 
analyses all of this data, compares it to what the readings were a 
moment ago, and filters out... almost all of this data. Because most of 
the time, most of it is of exactly no significance at all. And that is 
why you usually have no idea that you even /have/ nerves in all these 
places. But trust me, if something goes wrong, suddenly you will know 
ALL ABOUT those nerve endings!

- Monitoring the contents of the stomach, and deciding how much acid to 
synthesize, how quickly to release the contents into the intestine, how 
much bile to release, etc.

I could go on. Suffice it to say, the brain is always running a 
bazillion tasks, even when you're thinking of nothing at all. Indeed, 
even when you're /asleep/. You might think you don't feel anything in 
your sleep, but trust me, if I come over there and stab you in the arm 
with a carving knife, you /will/ fell it. >:-)


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