with no selection pressure whatsoever, has designed the brain so that that none of its contents are stored in a volatile way?
Well, people exposed to very low temperatures have ended up in states where they were considered clinically dead, and then revived at least up to an hour later, with the cold preserving their brain even at a point where there was no blood circulation. ( http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/620609.stm for one example.) AFAIK, their brain worked just fine afterwards, even though “volatile” functions had been interrupted (but I’m under the impression that there may have been a minor amnesia of the moments just before falling unconscious). Also, lower mammals have been frozen and brought back with no ill effects.
Why write everything to disk if the computer never gets turned off?
Don’t take the computer metaphor too literally. There’s no separate disk and RAM in the brain, after all.
with no selection pressure whatsoever, has designed the brain so that that none of its contents are stored in a volatile way?
Well, people exposed to very low temperatures have ended up in states where they were considered clinically dead, and then revived at least up to an hour later, with the cold preserving their brain even at a point where there was no blood circulation. ( http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/620609.stm for one example.) AFAIK, their brain worked just fine afterwards, even though “volatile” functions had been interrupted (but I’m under the impression that there may have been a minor amnesia of the moments just before falling unconscious). Also, lower mammals have been frozen and brought back with no ill effects.
Why write everything to disk if the computer never gets turned off?
Don’t take the computer metaphor too literally. There’s no separate disk and RAM in the brain, after all.