NationStates Jolt Archive

This is a totally unprovable theory, but, I ask the question that if telepathic powers are real and that it is possible to read others thoughts and communicate with them by just using the power of the mind then would these signals travel faster than the speed of light?

...What? The speed of thought is how long it takes the electric pulses to travel form neuron to neuron. How would you propose people undergo telepathy? If so, I guess it would be electrons being tranferred between the brains, in which case it would be just as fast as normal thought, just a little slower because of the increased distance. I don't believe that's possible, though, since there would have to be a medium for the elctrons to travel through that will take them where it is intended.

Depends on who is doing the thinking.. Doh!

light itself is both a wave and a particle at the same time. maybe thought is too - thought being the actual message and not the chemical/electrical pulses in the brain (the spiritual level?)

Humans use, at most, 10% of their brains. That means that we may be capable of extraordinary feats beyond the likes we've ever dreamed of. For example, I might be fully capable of reaching into an alternate dimension while asleep, pulling an object out and into reality when I awaken. But if I can't use all of my brain, I'll never be able to do it. It's things like that that truly make you wonder about life, the universe, and everything. (Not intended as a Hitchhiker's reference. >_>)

Speed of thought - since thought relies on electrical impulses (light) running through our nerves, wouldn't it be 300,000 Kps?

But our brain processing those thoughts is a totally different story

if you took a wire of immitation neurons and plugged it in directly into someones grey matter and plugged it directly into yours then telepathy it might be posssible, but he could read yours as well

thought moves as fast as electrical waves can move throught your neurons :)

No-one knows what thought is. So you can hardly give it a speed.

The figure that we only use 10% of our brain is based on the number of neurons firing at any given time. It does not mean that 90% of your brain is off doing something unknown relating to mystical powers, or that I can carve most of your brain out and throw it away. The inactive neurons are resting, recharging, or holding place in the pattern of neural firings. If all neurons were on all the time, you would just be a lump of electrically conductive crystalline goo. Most of them are off because you aren't thinking of what year Columbus discovered America when you make a turkey sandwich. It's the pattern of firing that's important, and that pattern requires most of the neurons to be off so only the relevant ones fire.

The figure that we only use 10% of our brain is based on the number of neurons firing at any given time. It does not mean that 90% of your brain is off doing something unknown relating to mystical powers, or that I can carve most of your brain out and throw it away. The inactive neurons are resting, recharging, or holding place in the pattern of neural firings. If all neurons were on all the time, you would just be a lump of electrically conductive crystalline goo. Most of them are off because you aren't thinking of what year Columbus discovered America when you make a turkey sandwich. It's the pattern of firing that's important, and that pattern requires most of the neurons to be off so only the relevant ones fire.
Not exactly. There are parts of our brain that simply remain unused for the most part regardless of how neurons are firing. Thus, we may yet have the potential for fantastic things.

Four guys were talking about the fastest thing that exists.

The first says "Speech, before you've even realised what you're going to say, you've already said it"

They all agree thats true.

The next says "Electricity, because when you turn on a light switch the bulb is glowing before you could say anything"

They agree that electricity is probably faster than speech.

The third says "Thought, you've had it before you know it and it's gone just as quickly"

They all agree thoughts were very quick indeed.

The fourth says "i know something faster, Diarrhoea!"

The other three look at him confused.

"Seriously! he continues, i had the scatts the other day, woke up in the middle of the night, and before I could speak, turn on the light or think about it I'd shit myself."

Not exactly. There are parts of our brain that simply remain unused for the most part regardless of how neurons are firing. Thus, we may yet have the potential for fantastic things.

there's only so much you can use custard for.
Adding more custard does not endow it with the ability to dance or sing.

Humans use, at most, 10% of their brains.

Unfortunately that is an urban legend: http://www.snopes.com/science/stats/10percnt.htm

As for the speed of thought: it indeed depends how one could read it. Quantummechanically speaking instantaneous transmission of information is possible - but I don't see an obvious way to use this in telepathy.
Reading electric impulses from another persons brain would as pointed out not happen faster than the impulses themselves. And detecting them over any reasonable distance (think as low as cm's here) would be nearly impossible in a normal environment.

Four guys were talking about the fastest thing that exists.

The first says "Speech, before you've even realised what you're going to say, you've already said it"

They all agree thats true.

The next says "Electricity, because when you turn on a light switch the bulb is glowing before you could say anything"

They agree that electricity is probably faster than speech.

The third says "Thought, you've had it before you know it and it's gone just as quickly"

They all agree thoughts were very quick indeed.

The fourth says "i know something faster, Diarrhoea!"

The other three look at him confused.

"Seriously! he continues, i had the scatts the other day, woke up in the middle of the night, and before I could speak, turn on the light or think about it I'd shit myself."

That is the most pertinent thing on this thread thus far - apart from my observation that no-one knows what thought is.

As for the speed of thought: it indeed depends how one could read it. Quantummechanically speaking instantaneous transmission of information is possible - but I don't see an obvious way to use this in telepathy.

well.... if you have a pair of Quantum particles with a particular spin (I mean a physical spin, not their quantum spin which is a mathmatical idea, not a phyiscal one)

so you have two quantum particles, the original experiment was done with photons, they start together and are sent down differant fiber optics until they're five miles apart. If you use high energy electrons to affect the spin of one they other adjusts it's spin too, immediatly. No delay, no transmission.

thats just one reason why relativity and quantum mechanics don't send each other christmas cards!!

if you expanded this to mental states, assuming you could have part of two minds "matched" in their quantum states using electrons generated by the brain then any changes in one would instanty be evident in the other...

that could be the basis of telepathy if the brain can get around the uncertainty principle...

Very well; I retract my belief on the ten percent based upon the proof provided. However, I still believe that humanity may be capable of things such as telepathy in the future, when we either evolve to use them and/or manipulate our genes successfully to do so.

As I understand it, you're theoretically able to think at the speed of light, being an electrical (electromagnetic) process.

As I understand it, you're theoretically able to think at the speed of light, being an electrical (electromagnetic) process.

a thought is not just a single electrical signal. The brain is a parallel processor like the ones mankind is just starting to work with. So many thousands of electrons are moved around to form a thought, just like in a CPU. So thinking at the speed of light is technically correct but without knowing how far the electrons have to travel we can't get a time for a single thought.

So it's meaningless.

well.... if you have a pair of Quantum particles with a particular spin (I mean a physical spin, not their quantum spin which is a mathmatical idea, not a phyiscal one)

so you have two quantum particles, the original experiment was done with photons, they start together and are sent down differant fiber optics until they're five miles apart. If you use high energy electrons to affect the spin of one they other adjusts it's spin too, immediatly. No delay, no transmission.

thats just one reason why relativity and quantum mechanics don't send each other christmas cards!!

if you expanded this to mental states, assuming you could have part of two minds "matched" in their quantum states using electrons generated by the brain then any changes in one would instanty be evident in the other...

that could be the basis of telepathy if the brain can get around the uncertainty principle...

Hmm, *nods* spooky action at a distance.

In any event, thoughts not being defined, isn't it meaningless to ascribe vector properties to them. Like speed say.

You don't say what is the speed of a given quantum state, for example.

I had a brilliantly insightful point to make, but was distracted by the custard theory. Where can I buy eggs at 11:30pm on Christmas day?

I had a brilliantly insightful point to make, but was distracted by the custard theory. Where can I buy eggs at 11:30pm on Christmas day?

you'd be best to climb a tree and try to use sparrow eggs or something. That or go steal a chicken or something.

So thinking at the speed of light is technically correct but without knowing how far the electrons have to travel we can't get a time for a single thought.

It really isn't true that we think at the speed of light. Electricity and light are not the same thing. Electricity is a current of electrons moving through a medium, while light is made up of photons. Electrons have mass, photons don't, so they can go as fast as light in any event.

Electrons will move faster through a medium with better conductivity, like copper cable, than one with low conductivity, like salt water, and not at all in media with no conductivity, like rubber. Meat is not that good of a conductor and signals reach a top speed of 600 km/h.

And that's how fast we think. Fortunately we can think a lot of stuff at the same time.

It really isn't true that we think at the speed of light. Electricity and light are not the same thing. Electricity is a current of electrons moving through a medium, while light is made up of photons. Electrons have mass, photons don't, so they can go as fast as light in any event.

Electrons will move faster through a medium with better conductivity, like copper cable, than one with low conductivity, like salt water, and not at all in media with no conductivity, like rubber. Meat is not that good of a conductor and signals reach a top speed of 600 km/h.

And that's how fast we think. Fortunately we can think a lot of stuff at the same time.

I agree light and electricity are not the same things, but ....

Photons do have mass, this has been proven by their being deflected by gravity. thats why everyone gets so excited at a solar eclipse, aside from they get time off work / school to go stand outside.

Photons do get slowed down when traveling though a medium as compared to a vaccum, just like electrons.

Electrons do not have to travel in a medium. Much radioactive material produces Beta radiation, which is simply electrons with enough energy to break free of surrounding gravity, magantism and other nuclear forces.

When in this state they travel at speeds similar to a photon.

The reason they seem to "slow down" when traveling though a insulator such as rubber or speed up when traveling though good conductors is they travel less distance in a conductor due to not being bounced around so much!

if you send electrcity down a wire it's not the same electrons that come out the other end, they knock the first electrons they find and they knock others, and so on. The amount of knocking is defined as the amount of resistance in the medium. Copper for example has little knocking because it has lots of electrons that can be knocked, and they are very loosly tied to the Copper atoms and are happy to go wizzing down the line...

Remember: All matter can be described in terms of a wave function like light. if outside forces were removed, we could travel at light speed. It would take us a long time and too much fuel to get there, thats all.

sorry for going off topic but this fundamental understanding is nessesary for this conversation...

Humans use, at most, 10% of their brains. That means that we may be capable of extraordinary feats beyond the likes we've ever dreamed of. For example, I might be fully capable of reaching into an alternate dimension while asleep, pulling an object out and into reality when I awaken. But if I can't use all of my brain, I'll never be able to do it. It's things like that that truly make you wonder about life, the universe, and everything. (Not intended as a Hitchhiker's reference. >_>)


Sorry, but that's just an urban myth. http://www.snopes.com/science/stats/10percnt.htm

So... could it be that memory cells don't exist?

That if we think really hard, he break the light speed barrier and grasp the thought that was in the past.

That if we think really hard, he break the light speed barrier and grasp the thought that was in the past.

Isn't that called memory?