The Cosmic Web and the Neural Network - Why the Universe Looks Like a Brain

In 2020, astrophysicist Franco Vazza and neuroscientist Alberto Feletti published a paper comparing the structural organization of the cosmic web - the large-scale distribution of galaxies and dark...

In 2020, astrophysicist Franco Vazza and neuroscientist Alberto Feletti published a paper comparing the structural organization of the cosmic web - the large-scale distribution of galaxies and dark matter filaments across the observable universe - with the neural network of the human brain.

The correspondence was not metaphorical. It was quantitative. The cosmic web contains approximately one hundred billion galaxies connected by filaments of dark matter and gas.

The human brain contains approximately eighty-six billion neurons connected by axonal and dendritic projections. The number of nodes is similar. The organizational pattern is similar.

The fractal dimension - the mathematical measure of structural complexity at multiple scales - is similar.