X-Message-Number: 15401 Date: Sun, 21 Jan 2001 06:00:39 -0500 From: Thomas Donaldson <> Subject: on brains & cryonics openness Hi again, once more: I believe I made the matter very clear, but apparently I did not. If we knew beforehand just exactly what a person would do in his (or her) entire life, then we could indeed put together a picture of this person which would use up a fixed set of connections (not necessarily all N^2, but a fixed set). However we are not in such a situation when we consider the future of someone (including ourselves). The possible wirings still consist of 2^N possibilities. This even remains true toward the end of our lives, since unlike electrical systems, nerves change their connections. The fact that at any instant we have a fixed number M of connections means nothing at all in terms of either our future or our past. This is especially so because our life does NOT consist solely of movements and changes within our brain. Our life continually inputs data from outside our brain, and without that input we'd basically go to sleep. Would anyone who believes that N^2 connections would represent us completely please explain? Part of our data input will always come from outside us, and we won't be able to predict it. Just as with single-processor computers, we cannot represent all the possible calculations one computer could perform without bringing in 2^N possibilities. This remains true even though any single computer from its first use until its last would use N^2 (times a constant) number of settings. Second point, irrelevant to brains and computing but important otherwise: Bob Ettinger put an important and interesting message on the 21 Jan 2001 cryonet. I'd like him to give more information rather than simply refer to an internet site, and do so in the Immortalist also. Ideally this info should also be published in scientific papers ... something which at least the Ukrainian lab should be able to do. This would improve my sense of their silence by orders of magnitude. Best wishes and long long life to all, Thomas Donaldson Rate This Message: http://www.cryonet.org/cgi-bin/rate.cgi?msg=15401