The world's best super computer only does what its told

I am of course talking about the human brain. We have yet to build a single machine that comes even close to the raw computing power of the human mind. We take in billions of bits of data every second and somehow manage to sort through what is relevant and what is not, without any conscious effort.

A lot of people think that they are too dumb for complex situations or that they have terrible memories. That really isn't true though. What makes me say this?

Well, take for instance the complex math involved in crossing a busy street. If there are just one or two cars here and there it is easy to just say, well that car is far away. I should have plenty of time to make it across. But as that car gets closer and closer, there is a point where your mind tells you not to cross because you won't make it in time. How do you really know this?

You subconsciously take in all of the available data and make multiple complex calculations without even intentionally thinking about it. First, there is the distance of the car in question and the distance you need to travel to get to the other side of the road. You don't know how many feet or yards exactly it is from one side of the road to the other and you don't know exactly how far the other car is from you. Then there is the speed that you are each traveling at, also both unknowns.

There's a comparison between the time it will take you to cross the road and the amount of time it will take that vehicle to reach you. Without knowing the actual speeds and exact distances involved your brain somehow calculates the speeds and distances as relative ratios, compares one to the other and decides that you do or don't have enough time to cross.

At a busy intersection your mind will make these calculations dozens or even hundreds of times a minute, all running in the background while you are busy thinking about that cute blonde, or what you are going to have for lunch. And that's just one example. Your brain does things like this literally all day ever day. Take for example the complexities involved in even such a simple task as turning the knob on a door handle to open it. Think its easy? Talk to a few robotics programmers who will tell you differently. There are things such as angles and distances, timing, rotation and grip, correct amounts of pressure, both for gripping and rotating, and even the right amount of force to pull on the door so you have enough time to step back without opening it into yourself(if it opens towards you that is)

A person may not be good at consciously calculating things. But that is only due to lack of practice, not lack of ability. It can and should be trained.

As far as memory goes, I believe we all have perfect memories. We just fail to use them properly. Forgetting is deemed by most people as a perfectly acceptable reason for not having done something. So we don't put much effort into remembering.

But I have some examples on memory as well. First, I can't speak for everybody, but nearly every person that I have asked about this has admitted to having at least one dream that they could remember in vivid detail, one where things in the dream mirrored exactly a scene from their life. Every single thing in the dream was the same as it was in real life. How could that be if our memory was bad?

Then there's the fact that none of us ever forget to put on clothing before heading off to work right? Why not? Because we know its not acceptable. There are multiple consequences, some immediate and some embarrassing. The point is, it is something that we, at some point in our lives, tag as important and necessary to do, every single time we leave the house. Every thing in our lives that we tag with that degree of importance gets remembered, every single time.

Other things that we deem less important we put lesser labels on and many of those are the things we constantly forget. When we admit that we forget a thing, what we are really saying is, that thing was not important enough for us to remember.

Again, we operate the most complex machine ever created, all the time. The machine does what we tell it to do. If we tell the machine to remember a thing it remembers it. If we don't, it doesn't. It IS our fault when we forget. Tag the important stuff as important and there won't be a problem.