In what sense is it inefficient? In terms of energy 100% is converted to heat anyway
There is a paper where some researchers look at biological processes vs computer software. Biological processes seem to have a lot of repetition between systems:
There's also the issue of the blood-brain barrier. Might make normal thermal regulation insufficient. In any case, it seems like they intend to do further study to see if this hypothesis is really correct and if there is more to the story. Who knows--it might be that for some species it's not necessary, but left over as a vestigial behavior like a tailbone. That's pure conjecture on my part, excuse me.
Something I find interesting about this, if a little off-topic, is that the Ancient Egyptians had a misconception that the brain simply existed to cool the blood. When they mummified a body they threw that part in the trash. How far we've come.
I've heard a lot of office buildings will leave every floor's fluorescent lights on in the winter to take a load off the overnight heating bills. I'm sure that lessens the lifespan of the bulbs and ballasts, but for people to adopt that practice it must still be economical in the final tally.
Who knows, I'd love to see more study on this because I think everybody in history has always wondered what the hell is up with dreams. "To keep your noggin warm" seems like a super anticlimactic purpose and I love it. It's so absurd and nihilistic it's funny, which kind of jives with nature's whole style.
I couldn’t agree more and wouldn’t it be so indicitave of the scientific trend that ensmallens man?
From the center of the universe, the sun orbiting our land to the Big Bang and inflation theory where there is no center.
From gods chosen creation to common ancestors shared with apes.
Now even our dreams to be punctured?
Brilliant to think about!
Consider the developmental paths of cell differentiation/specialization over the evolutionary history of animal species. Neural cells and muscle cells both have a common progenitor cell (i.e. a stem cell will differentiate into this cell, which then has one or the other as potential descendants.)
This sort of means that there is "code sharing" going on between the structure of nerve and muscle cells, moreso than between these and, say, liver cells. And, since animal muscle cells evolved before animal nerve cells, it's likely that it's directional—it's less that these are two "classes" with a common, well-factored "parent class"; and more like nerve cells are a "subclass" that has something closer to muscle cell functionality in its "parent class", and overrides that functionality heavily until it does what it wants.
Or, to put that another way: ignoring the particular way nerve tissue structures itself, and the receptors it grows, etc. Functionally, nerve tissue is, effectively, just muscle tissue that is balanced very precariously by its electrochemical environment to be in an always semi-conducting state, where the tissue as a whole will never go all-the-way-resistive (that's excitotoxicity, both in muscles and in nerves) or all-the-way-conductive (that's flexion in a muscle; but that's a seizure in a nerve. For the nerve-as-muscle, that's okay, it's built for that; but for the nerve-as-controller-of-functioning-elsewhere, that messes things up.)
Nerve cells rely on a lot of the code they've "inherited" from their muscle-cell "parent class" for their functioning. This includes the part where muscle tissue (and so nerve tissue) gets oxygenated by pumping its own blood through it [and clears waste by pumping its own lymph through it], by inducing subtle sinusoidal increases/decreases in electrical activity to cause increases/decreases in capillary diameter.
This is especially important for the brain, given that the blood-brain barrier prevents blood from being "driven" through the brain by the heart. The brain has to pump itself, and therefore has to induce electrical activity in itself.
For the brain-as-muscle, this electrical activity is useful. For the brain-as-neural-network, this electrical activity is—from what I understand—a form of interference to the signal the brain is trying to propagate/compute. The brain has evolved to deal well enough with this interference to make it not get in the way of accomplishing the goals the brain was evolved to accomplish; but, necessarily, evolution never bothers to go any further than that. So, as long as the effects are "harmless" to adaptive fitness, that interference is allowed to leak through as a signal interpreted by the brain-as-neural-network as thought, or perception, or what-have-you.
And thus, dreams.
i was remembered of that very rare condition where your brain cannot ever enter the deeper sleep states. these people usually die rather soon after onset of exhaustion. what has been confirmed through these people is that narcotics dont help at all. while you can ise it to make them 'sleep' long enough, it's not helping with the condition. so brain warming cannot be the main reason for REM, if it's one at all.
edit: fatal insomnia is what i was referring to.