# Nootropic Neural News by George Church > “Our ability to prioritize and process the news is in an autocatalytic, positive feedback loop in which we extend our brain both biologically and electronically. Surgery could extend our brain capacity from 1.2 kg to 50 kg (routine head loads of the Sherpas of Nepal). The rate of growth of neural systems could be as fast as the doubling time of human cells (about one day) with differentiation from generic stem cells to complex neural nets recently engineered to occur in four days.” > **— George Church**, *2016, Edge Annual Question, “What Do You Consider The Most Interesting Recent [Scientific] News? What Makes It Important?”* ## Sources and Context - **Direct Edge response and surrounding essay:** [Nootropic Neural News](https://www.edge.org/response-detail/26567) — Edge published this exact passage in its 2016 Annual Question collection, *WHAT DO YOU CONSIDER THE MOST INTERESTING RECENT [SCIENTIFIC] NEWS? WHAT MAKES IT IMPORTANT?*. The response page preserves the surrounding argument and qualifications. - **Complete local collection index:** [[research/Edge 2016 Full Quotation Curation|Edge 2016 Full Quotation Curation]] — retained source-first record for the complete response cohort and this passage's promotion status. ## Related Articles and Collections - **Collection:** [[collections/Edge|Edge]] - **Collection:** [[collections/Machine Succession|Machine Succession]] - **Article:** [[articles/The Evolutionary Roots of Silicon Valley|Valley Roots]] - **Article:** [[articles/Modern Artificial Intelligence in the 1970s|AI in the 1970s]] - **Article:** [[articles/Cyber-Physical Lessons from Imperial Beekeeping|Cyber-Physical Beekeeping]] - **Article:** [[articles/STEVE|STEVE]] - **Wiki map:** [[wiki/Cybernetics|Cybernetics]] ## Related Topics - [[wiki/Cybernetics|Cybernetics]] - [[wiki/George Church|George Church]] - [[wiki/Second-Order Cybernetics|Second-Order Cybernetics]] - [[wiki/Cybernetic Feedback Loop|Cybernetic Feedback Loop]] ## Share on Social Media ``` “Our ability to prioritize and process the news is in an autocatalytic, positive feedback loop in which we extend our brain both biologically and electronically. Surgery could extend our brain capacity from 1.2 kg to 50 kg (routine head loads of the Sherpas of Nepal). The rate of growth of neural systems could be as fast as the doubling time of human cells (about one day) with differentiation from generic stem cells to complex neural nets recently engineered to occur in four days.” — George Church, 2016, Edge Annual Question, “What Do You Consider The Most Interesting Recent [Scientific] News? What Makes It Important?” https://bryantmcgill.com/simple-reminders-george-church-nootropic-neural-news ```