X-Message-Number: 15912 Date: Wed, 21 Mar 2001 22:19:00 -0800 From: Olaf Henny <> Subject: Machine AI vs. Artificially Supplemented Human Intelligence References: <> Hi all: I have started writing this up as a private e-mail a couple of days ago, but I got stuck. You see about a year ago I fried my hard drive and as a result lost all the pertinent references this forum is so intent on demanding. But since the subject of AI machine version vs. artificially supplemented human intelligence appears to have struck wide interest on Cryonet, here goes, strictly from memory, but in the hope, that others may be able to provide references: - Ralph Merkle estimated a few years ago, that with molecular assembly we would be able to fit a computer with 1 megabyte memory complete with energy sources and circuitry into one cubic micron. In other words a cubic millimetre, the size of a sugar grain, could accommodate one billion MB. In support of James Swayze s concept of artificially enhancing human brains, I could easily store a couple of those in my cranial cavity; - if I just could get some axons linked to them...? With all the information contained in them directly accessible, I would be magnificent, though probably not smarter than any of Eugene s machine-AI, but definitely more devious <g> (BTW, I got stuck trying to find a reference to Ralph s estimate on his website) - A TV report about two years ago showed a NASA project, in which a woman with special abilities virtually landed large aircraft. She was connected to a computer through probes taped to her scull, which read electromagnetic emanations from her brain. The computer directed by her brain and the those probes actually moved a mock-up of mechanical devises like those in a real full size jetliner as they were required to move to land an aircraft safely. Not quite the direct tie-in into the CNS, that I had envisaged above, but hey, it worked and it s a start. - Lastly the Aussie sniffer, which was designed to analyse blood and other bodily fluids and which hit the news now almost 4 years ago, had at its central component a switch of 1.5 nanometres . Now I have no idea, what the other two dimensions were, but if they were the same, we could stash into a bacterium measuring 300nm x 75nm x75nm 500,000 of them. On/off and voila we have one MB. Okay, no circuitry and no energy source, and whatever else occupies a computer, but we have so far only filled 0.0017 cubic micron. So stay tuned Eugene, James is well on his way! :) My apologies to the Aussie researchers, if I have blundered in my calcs. for lack of info, but one thing is for sure: Those switches are wee little things and their technology will go a long way in making James superhuman. :) Best, Olaf Rate This Message: http://www.cryonet.org/cgi-bin/rate.cgi?msg=15912