Ask HN: Do brains deadlock?

eesmith7y ago· 2 in thread

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Buridan%27s_ass and https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Analysis_paralysis ?

Do either of these, say, shut off the nervous system from the lungs or the stomach?

Deadlocking the brain should appear in the underlying autonomous nervous system, but it doesn't. That's very odd.

Do you also find it odd that deadlocking a computer doesn't cause the cooling fans to stop and RAM refresh cycle to fail?

That is, what is the basis of "should"?

We have computer systems with a hardware watchdog. If the keep-alive heartbeat fails - like when the CPU deadlocks - it resets the computer. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Watchdog_timer

Computers have multiple systems to help prevent total system shutdown. Why can't humans also have such?

1 more reply

zzzcpan7y ago· 1 in thread

It's more like massive amount of reactive asynchronous communicating processes, where deadlocks cannot happen. Even if two processes accidentally enter a loop where they react by sending messages to each other, they still will be able to react to messages from other processes.

cimmanom7y ago

This.

Or maybe epilepsy?

masonic7y ago

"Nice try, but my head was built with paradox-absorbing crumple zones."

-- Robot Santa on "Futurama"

blackflame70007y ago

It could be argued that someone in a coma is in a deadlocked state

opless7y ago

maybe this is relevant? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PWMMcaF7YPQ

Ask HN: Do brains deadlock?

Ask HN: Do brains deadlock?

14 comments

14 comments