Pre-Raphaelites are everywhere

I was going to write about the above but in the split second between typing the title and writing this, I have decided that I don't want to. Do you ever get an enthusiasm for something which vanishes instantly the moment you try to action it? I was reading another of Rudy Rucker's books last night and he was trying to determine what magnitude number would be required to determine all the Brain states of a Human being over their life time. His answer boiled down very logically to the following :-

Brain state is determined by all the Synapses in the brain. These are either on or off so you need a binary switch for each of them.

Synapses in the Brain - 3,000,000,000

Sample rate : 500 times a second.
Lifetime : 80 Years
: 80 * 365 Days
: 80 * 365 * 24 Hours
: 80 * 365 * 24 * 3600 Seconds (Can't be bothered with the minutes)
Therefore Samples : 80 * 365 * 24 * 3600 * 500

Total required bits to store a lifetime's Brain states
= 3,000,000,000 * 80 * 365 * 24 * 3600 * 500
= 3,784,320,000,000,000,000,000
= 37.84320 DuoDeciPlex (Rudy Rucker's term)
= 3.784320 Sextillion

Lets put that into Bytes (8 bit ones of course)

1 MegaByte = 1,000,000 Bytes * 8 bits = 8,000,000 bits
1 GigaByte = 1,000,000,000 Bytes * 8 bits = 8,000,000,000 bits
.....
1 ZettaByte = 1,000,000,000,000,000,000,000Bytes * 8 bits = 8,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 bits

We are talking just under half a Zettabyte. Do we have that available yet.

Call me if any of this maths is wrong as I have done it all of the top of my head. I read it in a dim cinema before the start of K-PAX last night so he may have been on about something different. My brain-state was kind of fuzzy.

All things fall into the big space. Read the book Mind Tools if you like but it is not on UK Amazon.