Fwd: Re FreePress is suing the FCC. Here's how the process works.

["Dave Farber" <dave () farber net>]

---------- Forwarded message ---------
From: Roger Bohn <Rbohn () ucsd edu>
Date: Mon, Jan 1, 2018 at 5:11 PM
Subject: Re: [IP] Re FreePress is suing the FCC. Here's how the process
works.
To: Dave Farber <dave () farber net>
CC: Brett Glass <brett () lariat net>, Bob Schulman <bob () rexdog net>


I agree with Bob Shulman that 1Mbps is woefully low for any estimate of
“useful bandwidth” to an individual, much less to a home. It’s risky to
give regulators an any excuse to further ignore consumer desires for faster
connections.
Here is a technical refutation of Brett’s analysis. His statement that 1
Mbps is the maximum useful bandwidth to a person is wrong by at least one
order of magnitude, quite likely by three orders of magnitude, and
conceivably by even more.

On 31 Dec 2017, at 11:17,

From: Brett Glass brett () lariat net
Date: Sun, Dec 31, 2017 at 2:14 PM

The fact is that, according to neurophysiologists, the entire bandwidth of


all of the human senses combined is about 1 Mbps. (Some place it slightly
higher, at 1.25 Mbps.) Thus, to completely saturate all inputs to the human
nervous system, one does not even need a T1 line - much less tens of
megabits.
And therefore, a typical household needs nowhere near 25 Mbps - even if they
were all simultaneously immersed in high quality virtual reality. Even the

First, I don’t know where the 1Mbps number comes from, but a common number
is the bandwidth of the optic nerve, which is generally assessed at around
10Mbps. See references.

Second, a considerable amount of pre-processing occurs in the retina and
the layer under the retina, before reaching the optic nerve. These serve as
the first layers of a neural network, and handle issues like edge detection.

Third, our eyes move around on multiple time scales and for many reasons,
including various involuntary feedback loops. We selectively
sample/perceive a fraction of what we are exposed to. Having the “extra”
information accessible is very important to our overall sensing of the
world.

In addition, the world implied by Brett’s statement that we only need 1
Mbps is one where people consume exactly 100% of the information they
receive electronically. As we all know, we have selective attention. We
record stuff (e.g. pdfs, TV) that we never actually look at. We dip in and
out of information streams. We queue up information to look at later. All
of these have value to consumers, hence we are willing to pay for higher
bandwidths than 1Mbps or even 10Mbps. See bob Shulman’s thought experiment
about a 1 Mbps video link.

Of course, the bandwidth also affects the time needed to download large
files. I can sometimes DL a multi-gigabyte game on Steam while eating
dinner. Again, this has some value that I am willing to pay for. Of that
file, much of it is material that I will probably never see or take
advantage of - but I need to load the entire game before it will start.

Caveat: I’m no expert on the human sensory system. But I looked into it
briefly years ago for research on “How Much Information” people receive.
http://ijoc.org/index.php/ijoc/article/viewFile/1566/743 We estimated an
average around 20 zettabytes per day, which works out to 1 exabit per
second (10^18 bps) of time awake. Much of that is generated by graphical
software. What matters to consumers in any case is not *average* bandwidth
over a day, but the useful maximum bandwidth.

Roger

Further reading:
https://www.newscientist.com/article/dn9633-calculating-the-speed-of-sight/

https://www.researchgate.net/publication/237527513_Report_How_Much_the_Eye_Tells_the_Brain

Human retinal circuitry and physiology
Christina Joselevitch Yale University, United States
Abstract
Every second, in an average daytime light environment, hundreds of millions
of photons enter the human eye and arrive at the photoreceptor layer of the
retina. All our information about the visible world is contained in this
rain of photons. The retina is a complex tissue, literally an extension of
the brain, which transforms the rain of photons into bioelectric signals
containing all the information available to the brain to interpret and
respond to the external visual world. A considerable amount of processing
takes place within the retinal tissue itself. Understanding what kind of
processing takes place at each retinal stage is crucial for understanding
normal vision, vision in the presence of diseases affecting the retina,
and, ultimately, for the development of therapies to treat such diseases.
This manuscript reviews the relation between structure and function of the
different retinal pathways and addresses their possible roles for visual
perception. Keywords: retina, physiology, parallel pathways, vision,
perception.

Prof. Roger Bohn, UC San Diego
+1 (858)381-2015 mobile + text



-------------------------------------------
Archives: https://www.listbox.com/member/archive/247/=now
RSS Feed: https://www.listbox.com/member/archive/rss/247/18849915-ae8fa580
Modify Your Subscription: https://www.listbox.com/member/?member_id=18849915&id_secret=18849915-aa268125
Unsubscribe Now: 
https://www.listbox.com/unsubscribe/?member_id=18849915&id_secret=18849915-32545cb4&post_id=20180101175446:C19B7590-EF46-11E7-AEDF-9B14B7AA9B29
Powered by Listbox: http://www.listbox.com