[Sentral Dogma]

I've heard the number to be 7%. Does anybody have the "official" number?
You also have to consider that some percentage of that 7% goes towards regular bodily functions. So the human mind has a ridiculous amount to be unlocked.

what do you guys think would happen when we start using our brains? superpowers, or some sort of control of reality? Higher levels of consciousness and understanding and "one-ness"? More efficient ways to control and kill each other? American Idol 23? Big-Mac, the second coming? peace on earth? piss on earth?

 

[jim]

though the fantasies of such "unlocked" potential are nice, they are in fact pure fantasy and nothing more. The figure you quoted for the usage of the brain is slightly off...by about 93% points.

 

[Sentral Dogma]

thanks, god.

 

[blessingx]

Agree with Jim. There is no official number. That said Rip Torn's character (who uses 48%), in the Albert Brooks flick, "Defending Your Life", said most Littlebrains (Earthlings) use 3% and you really don't want to be on Earth if you use more than seven.

 

[Serpentine]

Jim is quite correct - 100% of the human brain is used.

 

[MusicLover]

What about some autistic people, like the math geniuses? You know, the ones who can do 45,693 * 2,998 in their heads within 5 seconds. I guess they use the same amount of their brain as everyone else, right?

Except for the 7%, I agree with Sentral Dogma. I believe that there is much hidden potential. It is possible. The brain is an amazing thing. And I doubt scientists will ever be able to figure out everything about it.

 

[blessingx]

Maybe not smarter, but what about more creative?
This was big news a few months ago. A NYTimes reporter did the test and his drawings changed pretty dramatically. They were included in an article that I now can't find, though I'm sure they're now charging for it (over 30 days).

 

[KR...]

Quote:

The Ten-Percent Myth Someone has taken most of your brain away and you probably didn't even know it. Well, not taken your brain away, exactly, but decided that you don't use it. It's the old myth heard time and again about how people use only ten percent of their brains. While for the people who repeat that myth, it's probably true, the rest of us happily use all of our brains.

http://www.csicop.org/si/9903/ten-percent-myth.html

 

[Sentral Dogma]

don't know if this whole magnet craze is hokey or not, but the human body is a huge electrochemical machine, and should be affected by them. I wonder, though, about the huge amounts of radio, satellite, cellphone, and all these other beams that pass through us everyday.. probably not the greatest thing.

 

[sacd lover]

Judging from the periodicals you see going through the checkout line, I would say 7% is high.

 

[uoods]

Who even knows if how they're measuring this "10%" is accurate, if they thesmelves are only using 10% of their brains, as they claim?

 

[Jeff Guidry]

Quote:

Originally posted by Sentral Dogma don't know if this whole magnet craze is hokey or not, but the human body is a huge electrochemical machine, and should be affected by them. I wonder, though, about the huge amounts of radio, satellite, cellphone, and all these other beams that pass through us everyday.. probably not the greatest thing.

I imagine a magnetic field would have to be pretty large in order to disrupt any human physical processes...the amount of energy in an average radio wave transmission is minimal, you are bombarded by various wave frequencies from space all the time that are probably much more powerful than anything transmitted by a cell phone tower...

 

[Mr.PD]

If we use 100%, why is it possible to do a frontal lobotomy successfully?

I doubt that 10% is anywhere near accurate.
Maybe a reduction of 10% has minor consequences is why lobotomies work.


Maybe I should stay out of this thread.

 

[spaceman]

I think it is obvious that a number of people here at this site use a very small percentage of their total capacity. Anyone care to guess how much Merton uses?

 

[FalconP]

How can you arrive at an estimate without having a yardstick? You at least have to know what exactly is the full capacity of the human brain (i.e. what does it mean by 100%)

As far as I know, no one knows. Hence any kind of figure is baloney.

Motivational books/tapes love to say how even Einstein had used only [insert any number]% of his brain -- fine if that helps to sell a few more copies, just don't question their source of info.