The Data Pipeline for Superintelligence Starts With Your Screen

There’s a question that’s been haunting AI research for decades: how do you build a system that truly understands the world?

Not one that predicts the next token. Not one that passes benchmarks. One that actually models reality — the way a human does, the way an ecosystem does, the way a city does.

I think I know where the answer starts. And it’s not where most people are looking.

The Densest Data Structure on Earth

The human brain stores approximately 2.5 petabytes of information. That’s 2.5 million gigabytes packed into 1.4 kilograms of tissue. A Salk Institute study found that each of the brain’s 125 trillion synapses can hold about 4.7 bits of information across 26 distinct levels — ten times more than scientists previously believed.

To put that in perspective: Yahoo’s entire data warehouse, processing 24 billion events per day, holds less data than a single human brain. The IRS database tracking 300 million Americans? About 150 terabytes. Your brain holds roughly 17 times that.

You almost don’t see this kind of information density anywhere else in nature. A rainforest is staggeringly complex, but the data per cubic centimeter doesn’t come close. A coral reef, a city, a desert — all contain extraordinary information. But none of them approach the compression ratio of the three-pound organ sitting between your ears.

This matters enormously for the future of AI.

If You Want to Model Everything, Start With the Brain

Here’s the thesis: the best data pipeline for superintelligence is, first, a data pipeline for the human brain.

Think about it. If we could create a true digital twin of human cognition — not a language model trained on text, but a living model of how a specific human thinks, decides, and acts — we’d have cracked the hardest data problem on the planet. The densest, most complex information structure in the known universe, digitized.

And once you’ve built the infrastructure to model that, the same technology extends outward. Digital twins of teams. Of organizations. Of supply chains and cities. Eventually, of ecosystems — jungles, oceans, deserts, entire countries. Each one is a system of interacting agents making decisions under uncertainty. The brain is just the one with the highest data density per unit of space.

So if you’re serious about building toward superintelligence — or even just toward AI systems that truly understand the world — you don’t start with more text data. You start with the human brain.

The Screen Is the Window Into the Brain

Now here’s the practical question: how do you actually observe a human brain in action?

You could try neuroimaging. fMRIs, EEGs, brain-computer interfaces. They’re promising but limited — expensive, invasive, low-resolution for everyday use.

Or you could look at what’s already sitting in front of the brain for most of its waking hours.