currently the most advanced form of communication to have evolved, human language, is still very low bandwidth
Language is just one of the means of communication available to human beings. Its seemingly low bandwidth is due to the fact that the neocortex, the part of the brain responsible for processing language, logic, visual reasoning etc, is itself rather low bandwidth/low speed, so language itself isn’t the bottleneck. (The bottleneck itself is mainly due to the more recent evolution of this neocortex, and the fact that these processes were not that vital to human survival until very recently on an evolutionary timescale. Also that these logical processes take up a lot more energy than the some of the other processes happening in the brain.)
But human nervous systems do have much higher bandwidth communication channels. We share them with the other mammals. It’s the limbic system, that based on the tone of another person’s voice, his posture, his facial muscles and a lot of other indicators, leads to a split second reaction, a gut feeling, an instinct about another person, his standing/status in the herd, etc being formed.
Going a level lower, there is an even faster, more primitive system, the basal ganglia, or the so called reptilian brain, this is where sensory input is first processed. For instance, in a split second you can tell if some set of input represents a dangerous situation, leading to a fear response.
In complex vertebrates it is the amygdala that first processes these sensory inputs, matches them against a fast type of emotional memory, and triggers the appropriate response through connections to the hypothalamus (for instance, triggering the flight-flight-freeze response).
In any case, I think the question itself is a bit naive on the brain architecture side from an evolutionary perspective. The nervous systems of these mammals do process and communicate a great deal of information (of course, this being an evolutionary process, there are things other than the brain and communication competing for energy). In the case of humans, most of that communication is not conscious. The part that is conscious is just a very recent addition, and was not that vital until very recently.
But human nervous systems do have much higher bandwidth communication channels. We share them with the other mammals. It’s the limbic system.
I’m quite uncertain about how high-bandwidth this actually is. I agree that in the first second of meeting someone, it’s much more informative than language could be. Once the initial “first impression” has occurred, though, the rate of communication drops off sharply, and I think that language could overtake it after a few minutes. For example, it takes half a second to say “I’m nervous”, and you can keep saying similarly-informative things for a long time: do you think you could get a new piece of similar information every half second for ten minutes via the limbic system?
(Note that I’m not necessarily saying people do communicate information about their emotions, personality and social status faster via language, just that they could).
Language is just one of the means of communication available to human beings. Its seemingly low bandwidth is due to the fact that the neocortex, the part of the brain responsible for processing language, logic, visual reasoning etc, is itself rather low bandwidth/low speed, so language itself isn’t the bottleneck. (The bottleneck itself is mainly due to the more recent evolution of this neocortex, and the fact that these processes were not that vital to human survival until very recently on an evolutionary timescale. Also that these logical processes take up a lot more energy than the some of the other processes happening in the brain.)
But human nervous systems do have much higher bandwidth communication channels. We share them with the other mammals. It’s the limbic system, that based on the tone of another person’s voice, his posture, his facial muscles and a lot of other indicators, leads to a split second reaction, a gut feeling, an instinct about another person, his standing/status in the herd, etc being formed.
Going a level lower, there is an even faster, more primitive system, the basal ganglia, or the so called reptilian brain, this is where sensory input is first processed. For instance, in a split second you can tell if some set of input represents a dangerous situation, leading to a fear response.
In complex vertebrates it is the amygdala that first processes these sensory inputs, matches them against a fast type of emotional memory, and triggers the appropriate response through connections to the hypothalamus (for instance, triggering the flight-flight-freeze response).
In any case, I think the question itself is a bit naive on the brain architecture side from an evolutionary perspective. The nervous systems of these mammals do process and communicate a great deal of information (of course, this being an evolutionary process, there are things other than the brain and communication competing for energy). In the case of humans, most of that communication is not conscious. The part that is conscious is just a very recent addition, and was not that vital until very recently.
I’m quite uncertain about how high-bandwidth this actually is. I agree that in the first second of meeting someone, it’s much more informative than language could be. Once the initial “first impression” has occurred, though, the rate of communication drops off sharply, and I think that language could overtake it after a few minutes. For example, it takes half a second to say “I’m nervous”, and you can keep saying similarly-informative things for a long time: do you think you could get a new piece of similar information every half second for ten minutes via the limbic system?
(Note that I’m not necessarily saying people do communicate information about their emotions, personality and social status faster via language, just that they could).