How many words, languages and memories is a brain capable of storing?

[curiousnorway]

I knows humans are able to storage many memories, languages (and words) and knowledge in their brains, but I'm wondering on how many. #Brains #Language #Knowledge

[dipta]

I've always heard that the brain's capacity is actually limited.
In my experience, I find that the more languages I study, the less I can speak well my native language and I started interchanging (translating) expressions and that kind of thing - which is apparently very common nowadays in many languages, especially English.

I've also heard of a different study where it said that anyone can learn a second language to fluency, but the same isn't true for the third and following.
Here in Japan you're seen as very smart if you can speak more than one language.
I think it's all about mental flexibility, memory, motivation and age. Not all people have the same capacity of memorizing things and connecting information, that's for sure. As a child, your job is to learn new things and that's your speciality. But as a busy adult with responsibilities you just don't have the same mental disposition to learn a new language after work and the learning curve will decrease naturally, even though you may actually be better at crossreferencing information.
I hope this makes sense, lol.

[curiousnorway]

Thanks for detailed answer! : )

[dipta]

Oh, you're welcome!

[dipta]

Thanks for MH!

[curiousnorway]

You're Welcome.

[hasrett]

Well my brain is capable of memorizing tons of stupid unuseful shit, but when it comes to stuff I'm actually gonna need in my life... not so much.

[Unit1]

Yeah. Same here :/
Our brain is a scumbag. 😣

[Adonis_pl]

There are Computational Neuroscientists that estimate between 1 TeraByte and 1 PetaByte of data can be stored within the brain. Its a pretty large range just because its hard to study and the field is incredibly young. I don't know how you would convert language, memory and skills into data and storage variables, but I would imagine that the brain could actually store an incredible amount. It takes a laughable amount of effort to actually store and retain information in the brain, so I would imagine that knowledge (language, memory, skills) isn't necessarily heavy or large in data volume

[TheCraftyLemur]

I don't think the answer is that simple. I'm not a neurologist but our brains don't store things the same way a hard drive can, our memory is based on repetition; the more we do something, the better we remember it.
I think this is caused by a cluster of neurons firing in a certain pattern. And our neurons resemble electrodes in the way they make connections.
It's because of this I don't think we can measure a limit to our memory, if there is one.

But like I said, I'm not a neurologist. Hope this was remotely helpful

[N192K001]

The Philippine National Hero, José Rizal, was a globe-trotter and became fluent in 20 languages and dialects.

If this article is correct, some have been counted to speak 72.
mentalfloss.com/.../how-many-languages-it-possible-know

[JamieG64]

There is a limit but we don't have the ability to calculate the storage capacity of the human brain or how much any memory would use. We're not even entirely sure how memories are stored only where. I remember reading somewhere that it may be as much as 500 years or more of experiences but that's likely nothing more than an educated guess.

[WhistleForTheChoir]

I imagine it's variable from person to person, but also I think it depends a lot on your memorization strategies and mnemonic devices. Someone who doesn't practice learning information will be at a severe disadvantage when compared to someone who does.

[LegateLanius]

Most computational neuroscientists tend to estimate human storage capacity somewhere between 10 terabytes and 100 terabytes, though the full spectrum of guesses ranges from 1 terabyte to 2.5 petabytes. (One terabyte is equal to about 1,000 gigabytes or about 1 million megabytes; a petabyte is about 1,000 terabytes.)

[FýrdracaDócincel]

How big is your head-drive?
...
...
I'll see myself out now.
media.giphy.com/media/1WQLKmc1Gfhny/giphy.gif

[RogueSoul]

Infinite we can store the entire internet in our brains and still have plenty of room our brains hold about 1 Petabyte of information

[WeirdoWerdo]

1 petabyte isn't enough to even store 1/4th of youtubes content.

[RogueSoul]

Its a fact that our brains can store the entire internet

[WeirdoWerdo]

Sources? If the brain can't even store 1/4th of youtubes content it is incapable of storing the whole Internet as that is beyond 1 petabyte... "Small" servers for most companies can be around 1 petabyte. A game developer usually have several petabytes of storage.

[jimyee]

Dude, you can't argue if it's a "fact" the internet said it's true so it's gotta be🤣

[AlexEfron]

It does deepen from person to person.
If a person were to learn only one language then my guess would be about 100000 words. I don't think anyone can learn more (if one can he/she is super gifted 😂)

[Likes2drive]

I always wondered that too, maybe we are unlimited or just lose old memories to store new ones. Reminds me of that movie “Johnny pneumonic “

[curiousnorway]

What is Johnny Pneumonic about?

[Likes2drive]

He is a courier and transports secret downloaded information in his brain but needs enough memory space to fit it so he had to delete part of his childhood memories to fit it , and gets paid a lot to do this , Keanu Reeves is the main character , check it out

[FilthyFrank]

Tha right amouth to make you forget about your girlfriends coming out of the womb day, haha

[george_]

The max number of words the brain can store is: Σ log (e^42π) * sin (√(π^ln (e) \ 1.39 * 10 ^ 62π )

[george_]

But all that words are not all stored on conscious level. Main part of them are in hippocampus, the Cingular's gyrus, the thalamus. The conscious part is the prefrontal cortex.

[Unit1]

You forgot to add a factorial and an approximate negation +/- to it.

MHO this

[Lumberman53]

There are people who can speak fluently in upwards of dozens of languages so a lot

[despui]

Find a suitable unit of measuring brain memory capacity, and the answer will be easy.

[Ashley234]

Hundreds of thousands

[Mr_Smith]

For short its unknown but say its unlimited

[BronzedAdonis]

Consult a neurologist

[Assburgers]

More than we can learn in a lifetime.

[Luffy80]

As much work as you put in

[Tmanwaldo]

Heard its about 3000 years