Brain’s Capacity

My daughter just told me today that the brain’s storage capacity is around 1 Petabyte. So we started talking…

Is that good or bad? Well, my computer can store 1 Terabyte, which is 1/1,000,000 of a Petabyte. So, I can store 1,000,000 of today’s computers worth of knowledge in my head. But I do forget things. I wonder how much data I forget on a daily basis. Would remembering and forgetting information equate to I/O? I would think our I/O speed is getting faster with the rapid consumption of fairly useless information (hopefully I/O slows down for this post!). Or would reading Facebook and Twitter feeds even be like quick operations performed in RAM that never make it to the persistent storage?

As we being to learn more about the brain, I am interested in seeing the trends of our capacity and our I/O. I hope the way we are using our brain — and seemingly causing it to be rewired due to the vast difference in our lives, thinking, and activities from just a generation ago — are improving its capabilities and robustness.