insitu

it seems quite strange and surreal, and yet possible! according to http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neuron under the section CONNECTIVITY it reads: the human brain has a huge number of synapses. Each of the 10^11 (one hundred billion) neurons has on average 7,000 synaptic connections to other neurons. 10 to the power of 11 = 100000000000 100000000000 times 7000 = 700000000000000 700000000000000 is the number of synaptic connections, however that number does not reveal all the possible connection between neurons. if we want to find all the possible connection we must take the FACTORIAL which uses the symbol "!" in statistics. e.g. if we want to take the factorial of, say, 5 we'd do it like this 5! = 5 times 4 times 3 times 2 times 1 = 120 so if we would have 5 synaptic connections then we would have 120 possible connections. the only problem is that, to take the factorial of 700000000000000 may be impossible, cos the number is too large. well at least my calculator isn't powerful enough for that moreover, according to http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Observable_universe there are 10 to the power of 80 atoms in the observable universe. well 10^80 is much less than 700000000000000 factorial? i suppose so... of course thou this is just the observable universe, who knows how many atoms there are in the entire universe. finally, giving that, all the numbers and estimates are correct, and that i didn't mess up any calculations as i usually do, it seems fair to say that there are more possible connections in the brain than atoms in the observable universe. this, of course, doesn't prove that there are in fact more possible connections in the brain than in the entire universe, however the question still remains plausible, since the brain beats the observable universe. P.S. we must consider one thing when we discuss about the brain, which is, the brain MUST have A LOT neurones, synapses, connections etc, cos the brain is what gives rise to consciousness (if that even exists) so there must be an "infinite" amount of possible connection, so that we may act freely and not predetermined... or maybe im just drunk