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 Rate This Message: http://www.cryonet.org/cgi-bin/rate.cgi?msg=10281