X-Message-Number: 21112
Date: Mon, 10 Feb 2003 08:05:10 -0500
From: Thomas Donaldson <>
Subject: CryoNet #21092 - #21100

And finally, a few short words about the conversation between 
Ray Kurzweil and Eric Drexler in the 4th Quarter 2002 issue of
CRYONICS, which I just received:

Kurzweil begins his piece here with an apparent assumption that
nanotechnology would be used to repair VITRIFIED patients. The 
purpose of vitrification is to make repair of patients much
easier and not require us to first develop suitable nanomachines.

Second, in calculating the probable number of bits in a brain,
and the minimal number accessible by various computer compression
methods, both Kurzweil and Drexler seem to assume that our 
brains work in bits and bytes, just like computers. That's
highly unlikely. I do not know how much volume we'd really
need to store the information in a person's brain, but until 
we have a much better understanding of how our memories work
in the first place such calculations look silly.

         Best wishes and long long life for all,

            Thomas Donaldson

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