this post was submitted on 22 Nov 2024
1148 points (98.9% liked)

Science Memes

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[–] [email protected] 75 points 1 month ago (2 children)

Contrary to popular belief, we're all profoundly stupid. Even the smartest among us spend enormous effort in their struggle to comprehend our surroundings.

[–] [email protected] 35 points 1 month ago (3 children)

At least half of us are below average.

[–] [email protected] 33 points 1 month ago (1 children)
[–] [email protected] 6 points 1 month ago (1 children)

But in a perfect bell curve, isn't the median always the same as the average?

And even if it's not a perfectly symetrical bell curve, aren't they generally close enough to ignore the differance

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[–] [email protected] 13 points 1 month ago (1 children)
[–] [email protected] 15 points 1 month ago (23 children)

It's not. I assure you there are far more outliers on the low end.

[–] [email protected] 8 points 1 month ago (1 children)

I endeavour to be as stupid as possible so more people can be above average.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 month ago

America thanks you for your service.

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[–] [email protected] 9 points 1 month ago (1 children)

If we're talking about IQ, than no. An IQ between 85 and 115 is considered average. This entails 68% of the population. So, only 32% of people are not average and only 16% are below average.

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[–] [email protected] 63 points 1 month ago (2 children)

Maybe the brain will one day invent something more tiresome than watching reddit users exchange tautologies.

[–] [email protected] 59 points 1 month ago (1 children)

I often describe myself as "3lbs of mostly fat piloting a meat mech." To the point that my wife sometimes refers to injuries as malfunctions/damage to her meat mech.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 1 month ago

I’m an ugly bag of mostly water.

[–] [email protected] 57 points 1 month ago (1 children)

Fun fact, the average adult brain also has a credit cards worth of plastic inside. So that bacon has some company!

[–] [email protected] 7 points 1 month ago (1 children)
[–] [email protected] 42 points 1 month ago (2 children)
[–] [email protected] 38 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago) (1 children)

Additionally, the average brain is about 1300 grams. 0.5% of 1300 is 6.5 grams, and plastic credit cards weigh roughly 5 grams.

0.5% is really hard for me to visualize. A credit card in everyone's brain is unfortunately easy.....

[–] [email protected] 9 points 1 month ago
CARD DECLINED
[–] [email protected] 15 points 1 month ago (1 children)

Once I put my head up to the EFTPOS machine and the payment actually went through

[–] [email protected] 14 points 1 month ago

EFTPOS is the fastest payment system in the world for identifying Australians on the internet. If you need to camouflage, you can use "card reader" instead. I don't know when you'd need to camouflage like that, but these are interesting times.

[–] [email protected] 36 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago) (2 children)

If we are talking facts, neurons don't use electricity, it's a cascade of released ion potentials. Thats why nerves are so much slower than electrical signals.

[–] [email protected] 16 points 1 month ago

It's really both, neurons communicate electrochemically. Neurons establish a voltage difference across their membrane, typically positive outside, negative inside, by concentrating ions on one side or the other. In a single neuron, the action potential (signal) results in the electric polarity of the cell membrane switching to negative outside, positive inside, with the change in gradient cascading down the length of the axon as ions are allowed to flow across the membrane by voltage-gated ion channels. After depolarization, ions are actively and selectively pumped to either side of the membrane, repolarizing it.

There's a lot more to it than that but it's 100% charge dependent. The change in charge is mediated by the flow of ions across a membrane instead of the flow of electrons through a conductor, hence why it's slower.

[–] [email protected] 16 points 1 month ago (1 children)

He should have said "power" not electricity

Humans dissipate power in the range of old tungsten lamps - on the order of 100W at rest, brains use about 20% of that, so 20W - about the same as an energy efficient globe

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 month ago (1 children)

Hi. I'm just curious what part of the world you're from that light bulbs are called a globe?

Cheers.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 month ago (1 children)

Yeah we call them light globes in Australia, as well as bulbs

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 month ago

Thanks. Never heard it before

[–] [email protected] 31 points 1 month ago (1 children)
[–] [email protected] 8 points 1 month ago

Prions are just like seasoning right?

[–] [email protected] 19 points 1 month ago (3 children)
[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 month ago (1 children)
[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 month ago

Fitting, really, to be a dream to meat.

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[–] [email protected] 6 points 1 month ago (1 children)

You momma is FAT (with water and salt)

[–] [email protected] 14 points 1 month ago (1 children)
[–] [email protected] 11 points 1 month ago (1 children)

Yeah your momma’s so big she’s not even FAT she’s exFAT and can store files up to 120 petabytes

[–] [email protected] 8 points 1 month ago

Yo mama's like exFAT; she's got no permissions so anyone can access anything and her low requirements mean she gets embedded everywhere.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 1 month ago (1 children)

I Upvoted just for the tapioca mention

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 month ago

Tapioca does sound good.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 1 month ago

OP has a baby in their head

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 month ago

But poltergeist cat is real!

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 month ago (2 children)

Brain uses more wattage than a lightbulb, unless we are counting incandescent bulbs because it makes the stat seem more impressive.

[–] [email protected] 37 points 1 month ago (5 children)

That phrase first came out when incandescent bulbs were the most common, so they consumed like 60W vs 7W for an equivalent LED bulb. The brain is somewhere around 20W.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 1 month ago (1 children)

I don't give a damn about Lemmy points, but you just said essentially the same thing as the above commenter and the Lemmy points are diametrically opposed. I love it!

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[–] [email protected] 7 points 1 month ago (1 children)

It was estimated back when incandescent was standard.

Keep in mind that’s not accounting for energy consumed from neurons burning oxygen, which accounts for 20% of a human body’s consumption.

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK28194/

[–] [email protected] 9 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago) (3 children)

20% of your bodies energy is about 20 Watts.

Normal-weight humans burn about 2200 kilocalories a day, which is about 9.2 megajoules. There are 8640 seconds in a day, so that works out to roughly 100 joules per second, or 100 Watt. 20% of that is 20 Watts for the brain.

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