John Morey....
M'dear John... I beg to differ with you, but the brain DOES have a backup. It
has a rather remarkable one, all things considered.
Because if has two lobes (or sides... I'm going to use the term lobe, but it's
possible this is incorrect usage.) <live with it> (grin) which while both are
working together, do differing functions cooperatively together. However, if
one lobe is surgically removed - perhaps due to a traumatic accident which had
destroyed that lobe - the remaining lobe can assume the function of the one
that was lost. AMAZING!
While it's not able to duplicate every single minute function of the missing
lobe, that remaining lobe can let the individual who has presumably lived thru
the trauma of the loss of one lobe of the brain STILL live a normal life.
I know this, because the example I used above actually happened to the then 28
year old daughter of a dear family friend after a major auto accident about 10
years ago. Her recovery took a long time, and she's not exactly the same
individual she was before as far as what she's comfortably able to do.
She WAS a teacher of higher mathematics in a local college, and can only
remember numbers now with the greatest of difficulty. However, she went back
to college, and graduated summa cum laude and now teaches in a high school's
English Dept. In meeting her, one would never know she'd lived thru such a
trauma, as she doesn't seem at all "handicapped."
Of course, this 'brain back-up" isn't as thorough or as swift as a ZIP drive,
or even as decent as a tape back-up, and it's not reusable, I'd imagine. But
what the heck... it sure beats a kick in the teeth!
Barb Mallut
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-----Original Message-----
From: Parkinson's Information Exchange On Behalf Of John Morey
Sent: Friday, June 20, 1997 4:37 PM
To: Multiple recipients of list PARKINSN
Subject: Re: ram
At 03:26 PM 6/20/97 -0400, you wrote:
>Joe, it seems to me, the average brain makes a 266mHZ computer with MMX look
>like a pocket calculator! Or even LESS! And think about this, when the brain
>gets damaged, and injured, it still manages to keep working to some extent,
>and it usuallly gives a warning before crashing too! AMAZING! Ken B
Yea, but the brain doesn't have a battery back-up in case something
interupts the power supply, nor a delete key! And you can't download the
memory to disk for future reference. We all have heard of hardware,
software, vaperware; I guess the brain would be wetware?
Peace, John
