Does our brain stores all things that we perceived from the past permanently? If so, how could it squish such amount of datas, considering our brain siz doesn't really grow a lot.
If you've ever done a Dot to dot (where you join the dots up in number order to make an image) you've already got a clue as to how the human brain remembers things. The brain maps memories (images) like the dots, and if at any point that pattern of dots emerges (through either a thought about something or seeing a similarity) the brain remembers that image. The brain stores the memory in two ways, Both down to the importane of the data but one is purely down to how many times that memory is called upon. This means the more you reminisce about a subject the more you will be able to remember it. (This is also why if you constantly remember the bad things that happen, from time to time, you actually increase it's memory so that it will never go away) The brain moves the information around in some respects, as the pattern might be on a computer a constant, but with the human brain it has to compensate for new neuron clusters, changes in synaptic connections and dieing cells. It kind of makes you wonder what would happen if you could defrag someones brain and put everything back together.
reply to Stryderunknown that was an interesting reply. if experience (memories) result in physical changes in the brain structure (shape, perhaps?), then, could it be copied. For example, as computer technology advances, one can imagine mapping exact dimensions of a brain, using some type of magnetic resonance technology. also, as tissue culture technology advances, one can also envision growing a brain in culture, that would have no experience as it's isolated from environmental stimuli. Then, if one could affect the cultured brain in such a way that it would have the exact dimensions of the mapped brain, would they then be interchangeable? would the cultured brain then have the stored memories of the mapped brain?
there might be a chance if the brain tissue comes from the same person. but there's also degeneration, some damage might be done due to alcohol or age or disease in the umm.. original brain. if you grow the brain from scratch, it'll not suffer from this and will be different from the original.
