X-Message-Number: 10281
From: 
Date: Wed, 19 Aug 1998 12:24:41 -0400 (EDT)
Subject: Re: CryoNet #10256 - #10266

Joe Strout in his message #10262: emulation by "computers"  says:

>Neurons (or at least, their spike initiation zone) can be emulated today in
>real time on conventional computers.  But this neglects all the complex
>analog processing going on in the dendrites.  To imitate that
>functionality, we generally use either compartmental models or Wiener
>kernels, but when we do this in a digital computer, it requires
>discretizing time and space.  The result is a simulation that's slow, or
>inaccurate, or both.   

>So it's a little misleading to speak of uploading as if it requires
>emulation of the brain in digital, symbol-processing hardware.
>

Would it not be possible to harness the enormous computational speed
of nanocomputers to provide an extremely good digital simulation of these
continuous biological systems? 

Note also that if we can devise an accurate model of the biological
processes involved in memory and the "machinery" of thought then we might
be able to identify those essential elements that encode our mind.
It might then be possible to relax the requirements for successful
cyronic suspension to provide preservation for fewer biological structures.

Personally, I think that uploading affords the most potent form of 
"re-animation".

/gary

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