The Unbearable Slowness of Being: Why do we live at 10 bits/s?

Human behavioral information throughput is approximately 10 bits/s, while sensory inputs reach gigabits per second.

2024/08/03 by Jieyu Zheng, Markus Meister, Zheng, Jieyu +1 · 53 voices · 10 citations
Social Sciences · #Sustainable Urban and Rural Development

paper · pdf · doi:10.48550/arxiv.2408.10234

Abstract

This article is about the neural conundrum behind the slowness of human behavior. The information throughput of a human being is about 10 bits/s. In comparison, our sensory systems gather data at ~10⁹ bits/s. The stark contrast between these numbers remains unexplained and touches on fundamental aspects of brain function: What neural substrate sets this speed limit on the pace of our existence? Why does the brain need billions of neurons to process 10 bits/s? Why can we only think about one thing at a time? The brain seems to operate in two distinct modes: the "outer" brain handles fast high-dimensional sensory and motor signals, whereas the "inner" brain processes the reduced few bits needed to control behavior. Plausible explanations exist for the large neuron numbers in the outer brain, but not for the inner brain, and we propose new research directions to remedy this.

Summary

The authors argue that there is a a million-fold gap between the high-bandwidth capacity of human sensory organs and the low-bandwidth output of human behavior. They suggest this 'sifting' process implies a distinction between an 'outer brain' for parallel processing and an 'inner brain' for serial cognition.

machine-generated · gemma4:31b

In simple words

Our eyes and ears take in a huge amount of data every second. But our brains only use a tiny bit of that to actually do things or think. It is like having a giant pipe for water but only drinking from a small cup. Scientists do not know why we are so slow.

machine-generated · gemma4:31b

Outline

• In Brief — Introduces the paradox of sensory input vs behavioral output.
• Abstract — Outlines the neural conundrum of why humans process only 10 bits/s.
• Introduction — Uses 'Twenty Questions' and Shannon entropy to establish the baseline behavioral rate.
• The information rate of human behavior — Analyzes typing, speaking, Rubik's cube solving, and memory sports to quantify throughput.
• The information capacity of the nervous system — Compares behavioral rates to the gigabit capacity of photoreceptors and single-neuron spike rates.
• The paradox of slow behavior — Addresses objections like photographic memory, subjective inflation, and unconscious processing.
• Some implications of 'ten bits per second' — Discusses brain storage limits, species differences, and the inefficiency of high-bandwidth BCIs.
• Constraints on the speed of cognition — Evaluates theories on noisy hardware, serial processing, and evolutionary history.
• Outer brain vs inner brain — Proposes a conceptual divide between high-dimensional sensory processing and low-dimensional cognitive control.
• Box: Measuring the information rate of human behavior — Explains the mathematical framework for calculating entropy and mutual information.

machine-generated · gemma4:31b

Argument

1. Human behavioral throughput (perception, action, cognition) is consistently around 10 bits/s.
   Data from typing speeds, speech rates, Rubik's cube solving, and memory sports.
2. The nervous system's hardware capacity is orders of magnitude higher than this behavioral rate.
   Calculations showing photoreceptors provide ~1.6 Gbit/s and single neurons transmit ~10 bits/s.
3. There is a 'sifting number' (ratio of sensory input to behavior) of approximately 10⁸.
   Comparison of the 1 Gbit/s sensory rate vs the 10 bit/s behavioral rate.
4. Existing explanations for this gap (noisy neurons, redundancy) are insufficient.
   Evidence that single neurons are precise and that biological redundancy is low in critical areas like the retina.
5. The bottleneck likely arises from a transition from parallel processing (outer brain) to serial processing (inner brain).
   Observation of the 'psychological refractory period' and the inability to perform multiple cognitive tasks in parallel.

machine-generated · gemma4:31b

Assumptions

• Shannon entropy is a valid framework for quantifying the richness of human behavior. [unstated]
• The '10 bits/s' figure is a representative constant across diverse cognitive tasks. [stated]
• Behavioral throughput can be separated from the noise of motor execution. [stated]

machine-generated · gemma4:31b

Claims

• Human behavioral information throughput is approximately 10 bits/s. [simulation]
• The human eye's cone population has a capacity of about 1.6 gigabits/s. [citation]
• A single neuron in the mammalian cortex transmits roughly 10 bits/s. [citation]
• The total information acquired by a human over a lifetime (nurture) is less than 4 GB. [proof]

machine-generated · gemma4:31b

Key equations

• I = 2 \frac\rmwords\rms ⋅ 5 \frac\rmcharacters\rmword ⋅ 1 \frac\rmbit\rmcharacter = 10 \frac\rmbits\rms — Calculates the information throughput of a professional typist, establishing the baseline for human behavioral speed.
• Si = \frac\textrmSensory information rate\textrmBehavioral throughput ≈ \frac\textrm1 Gbit/s\textrm10 bit/s = 108 — The 'Sifting Number' represents the massive gap between raw sensory input and actual behavioral output.

machine-generated · gemma4:31b

Proof sketch

1. The authors compare information rates across diverse human activities (typing, cubing, memory sports) to establish a consistent behavioral throughput of ~10 bits/s.
2. They contrast this with the gigabit-scale capacity of sensory organs and the bit-per-spike capacity of single neurons.
3. They argue that common objections (photographic memory, unconscious processing) do not significantly raise this limit.
4. The authors propose that cognition is fundamentally serial rather than parallel, potentially as an evolutionary legacy of spatial navigation.
5. They conclude that the 'inner brain' operates on a drastically reduced data stream compared to the 'outer brain,' suggesting a need for new research into this sifting mechanism.

machine-generated · gemma4:31b

Open questions

• What neural substrate sets the speed limit on the pace of human existence?
  It remains unexplained why billions of neurons are needed to process such a low bit rate.
• How do the inner and outer brain communicate across such a massive difference in information rates?
  Understanding this 'sifting' mechanism is key to understanding how we interact with the world.
• Is the prefrontal cortex organized into high-dimensional micro-modules similar to V1, despite appearing low-dimensional in simple tasks?
  Current experimental designs may be oversimplifying our understanding of cognitive neural architecture.

machine-generated · gemma4:31b

Funding and conflicts

funded by:

• Simons Collaboration on the Global Brain
• NIH

no conflicts declared

machine-generated · gemma4:31b

Cited by

• Alpha rhythms in the left auditory cortex set the speed limit for speech comprehension
• More Electrodes, Faster Minds? Rethinking Bandwidth in Brain-Computer Interfaces
• On the Computability of Artificial General Intelligence
• Symbiotic Brain-Machine Drawing via Visual Brain-Computer Interfaces
• Cambrian-S: Towards Spatial Supersensing in Video
• On the molecular basis of enduring memory in neurons, and cell fate in fibroblasts
• Adjacent Words, Divergent Intents: Jailbreaking Large Language Models via Task Concurrency
• Semantic representations emerge in biologically inspired ensembles of cross-supervising neural networks
• Enabling Physical AI through Biological Principles
• The Standard Model of the Retina

Discussions

• Thinking Slowly: The Paradoxical Slowness of Human Behavior [lemmy, 123 points, 16 comments]
• Human behavior happens at a surprisingly slow 10 bits/second or so, even though our sensory systems gather 8 orders of magnitude more data. Plus, we can only think about one thing at a time. We don’t [bsky, 122 points, 10 comments]
• Human thought crawls at 10 bits per second, Caltech study finds [lemmy, 69 points, 148 comments]
• A fun article exploring the puzzle that a) neurons are fast b) our senses can transmit perhaps a gigabit/sec in parallel, but c) the overall throughput of human behavior is ~10 bits/second. Some bottl [bsky, 33 points, 3 comments]
• High order human cognition process information at around 10 bits/second - yes, 10 *bits*. Surprising that no one has done this analysis before: arxiv.org/pdf/2408.10234 [bsky, 31 points, 3 comments]
• Why is reality so slow? Why can we only have one thought at a time? Why do we need so many neurons? Will Elon Musk's Neuralink really speed up his cognition? For answers and more questions check out o [bsky, 30 points, 1 comments]
• This should help, paywalls are not helping the Flo of information arxiv.org/abs/2408.10234 [bsky, 27 points, 2 comments]
• Great title for the research paper investigating the brain's oddly limited speed of processing ideas: "The Unbearable Slowness of Being." arxiv.org/abs/2408.10234 [bsky, 19 points, 1 comments]
• The Unbearable Slowness of Being: Why do we live at 10 bits/s? [lobsters, 17 points, 14 comments]
• What a fascinating read. TIL that the information rate for humans tasks in almost always at most 10bit/s (but that our senses gather that at 10^8 times that speed!) arxiv.org/abs/2408.10234 [bsky, 9 points, 1 comments]
• Just out in Neuron, by @jieyusz.bsky.social and @mameister4.bsky.social. Such an excellent, insightful analysis about a neuroscience paradox we don't discuss enough: The Unbearable Slowness of Being: [bsky, 8 points, 3 comments]
• The Unbearable Slowness of Being: Why do we live at 10 bits/s? [hn, 6 points, 0 comments]
• The arXiv version of the paper discusses this is about processing for human behavior, but the examples they give are very strange. It appears they measure information processing speed by the bit encod [bsky, 5 points, 1 comments]
• The unbearable slowness of being: Why do we live at 10 bits/s? PDF download arxiv.org/pdf/2408.10234 [bsky, 5 points, 1 comments]
• The Unbearable Slowness of Being [hn, 4 points, 0 comments]
• The Unbearable Slowness of Being: Why do we live at 10 bits/s? (2024) [hn, 4 points, 0 comments]
• The Unbearable Slowness of Being [hn, 4 points, 0 comments]
• The Unbearable Slowness of Being [hn, 4 points, 2 comments]
• Just re-posting this incredibly fun paper. It's Friday, treat yourself: arxiv.org/abs/2408.10234 [bsky, 4 points, 1 comments]
• I think this is a strong hint that consciousness is something very different and in many ways separate from the biological brain The scientists who worked this out obviously cannot explain this but d [bsky, 3 points, 0 comments]
• Now reading in yak collective composable and distributed systems (cads) study group arxiv.org/pdf/2408.10234 Discussion starts in 15 min. Join if intetested: www.yakcollective.org/join [bsky, 3 points, 0 comments]
• The study, titled “The Unbearable Slowness of Being: Why do we live at 10 bits/s?”, provides insights into the fundamental limitations of human cognition and raises intriguing questions about the evol [bsky, 2 points, 0 comments]
• The Unbearable Slowness of Being: Why do we live at 10 bits/s? https://lobste.rs/s/5hjq6v #cogsci [bsky, 2 points, 0 comments]
• ungated paper arxiv.org/abs/2408.10234 [bsky, 2 points, 1 comments]
• You can find the preprint here: arxiv.org/pdf/2408.10234 [bsky, 2 points, 0 comments]
• And let's not forget about learned automatic behaviors like, you know, walking, which can run in parallel. A better summary might've been: "human attention and deliberate behavior control top out at [bsky, 2 points, 0 comments]
• arxiv.org/abs/2408.10234 banger paper and banger title [bsky, 2 points, 0 comments]
• Super interesting stuff! Reminds me of this paper. arxiv.org/abs/2408.10234 [bsky, 2 points, 0 comments]
• Anyone know of an online journal club for #neuro? Being at a small college (SLAC), there is not much opportunity (no grad students, PDFs, or many other neuro profs) to discuss cool new papers like th [bsky, 2 points, 0 comments]
• The Unbearable Slowness of Being [hn, 2 points, 0 comments]
• The Unbearable Slowness of Being [hn, 2 points, 0 comments]
• The Unbearable Slowness of Being: why do we live at 10 bits/sec: arxiv.org/pdf/2408.10234 [bsky, 1 points, 0 comments]
• arxiv.org/abs/2408.10234 [bsky, 1 points, 0 comments]
• There is also a preprint available without paywall arxiv.org/abs/2408.10234 [bsky, 1 points, 0 comments]
• Nature's ultimate lesson in quality over quantity! 🌟 There is an amazing paper about the same. arxiv.org/abs/2408.10234 [bsky, 1 points, 0 comments]
• Try this: arxiv.org/pdf/2408.10234 [bsky, 1 points, 0 comments]
• You can read the paper here: arxiv.org/abs/2408.10234 But it seems to be about the speed of information and reasoning, not at the level of muscle response, etc. [bsky, 1 points, 0 comments]
• Menschliches Verhalten geschieht mit erstaunlich langsamen 10 Bit/Sekunde oder so, obwohl unsere sensorischen Systeme 8 Größenordnungen mehr Daten sammeln. Außerdem können wir immer nur über eine Sach [bsky, 0 points, 0 comments]
• Why do we live at 10 bits/s? "This defines a paradox: The vast gulf between the tiny information throughput of human behavior, and the huge information inputs on which the behavior is based. This enor [bsky, 0 points, 0 comments]
• arxiv.org/abs/2408.10234 [bsky, 0 points, 0 comments]
• How can you live at only 10 bits a second? This does not read like an academic paper! arxiv.org/abs/2408.10234 [bsky, 0 points, 1 comments]
• This is why Elon might be wrong about Neuralink scaling to ever-faster speeds. arxiv.org/abs/2408.10234 [bsky, 0 points, 0 comments]
• This convinced me that DNI’s won’t be terribly useful: arxiv.org/abs/2408.10234 [bsky, 0 points, 0 comments]
• And the paper linked in the article: arxiv.org/abs/2408.10234 (pdf available) [bsky, 0 points, 1 comments]
• Ah yes, the neural conundrum behind the slowness of human behavior: "Why does the brain need billions of neurons to process 10 bits per second? Why can we only think about one thing at a time? ... We [bsky, 0 points, 0 comments]
• #PostSapiens The Unbearable Slowness of Being: Why do we live at 10 bits/s? 2408.10234v2.pdf https://arxiv.org/pdf/2408.10234 [bsky, 0 points, 0 comments]
• "Having failed at debunking the paradox, one is forced to deal with the recognition that human perception, action, and cognition proceed at a glacially slow pace." arxiv.org/abs/2408.10234 [bsky, 0 points, 0 comments]
• Our brain is not a computer “Why does the brain need billions of neurons to process 10bits/sec? Why can we only think about one thing at a time?” Fascinating paper makes me wonder if aspects of neur [bsky, 0 points, 1 comments]
• The Unbearable Slowness of Being: Why do we live at 10 bits/s? arxiv.org/abs/2408.10234 [bsky, 0 points, 0 comments]
• The Unbearable Slowness of Being: Why do we live at 10 bits/s? arxiv.org/abs/2408.10234 "This article is about the neural conundrum behind the slowness of human behavior. The information throughput [bsky, 0 points, 0 comments]
• « At an average life expectancy of 77 years, and assuming you spend two thirds of your time awake, the sum of all the knowledge you'll ever consciously learn is a little over two gigabytes. » arxiv.or [bsky, 0 points, 0 comments]
• The unbearable slowness of being: Why do we live at 10 bits/s? https://www.cell.com/neuron/abstract/S0896-6273(24)00808-0 Free access version at https://arxiv.org/abs/2408.10234 [bsky, 0 points, 0 comments]
• ➡️ Read the paper: arxiv.org/pdf/2408.10234 👉 Never miss my updates on AI policy, compliance & regulation, including interesting papers: join 45,200+ readers who subscribe to my newsletter: www.lui [bsky, 0 points, 0 comments]

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