X-Message-Number: 21310
Date: Fri, 28 Feb 2003 08:38:24 -0500
From: Thomas Donaldson <>
Subject: CryoNet #21298 - #21306

For Mr Kluytmans: I am glad you have clarified your point about
information versus persons. That clarification is VITAL, in 
many senses... even if it would take a great deal of argument
to convince me that duplication (or even getting the required
full information about a particular person) was coming anytime
in the near future, say the next few centuries.

For Brian Stewart: First, I confess not to have been exact about
just how neurons work, even though it's quite possible that they
do use circuits which exploit randomness and static. Such circuits
are discussed in a short article in PERIASTRON 4(9)(1998) (years
ago!) p. 6. That article is based on two articles, one in NATURE
(391(1998) 770-772) on Belousov-Zhabotinsky reactions, and one
in SCIENCE (279(1998) 1198-1200) on doing the same with light.
It turns out that the SCIENCE article is based on ideas used
to do the same thing in "a specially designed chaotic electrical
circuit". Given the way neurons behave, they MAY use such systems,
but so far no one seems to have prove a case that they do.

As for behavior of multiple neurons in our brain, it's vital that
they can synchronize their spiking. Electrical currents made by
neurons consist of multiple spikes, all of the same voltage height,
and all at a given fixed rate. Neurons exist in our brain, and
get random electrical impulses from many other neurons (some have
worked out that every neuron gets impulses from all the others).
Synchronized spiking gives a way to communicate despite all the
noise. Cf: SCIENCE (278997) 1950-1953) which experimentally
proves this behavior in motor neurons. You may also be interested
in studies of how a fly's eyes work. The fly must see movement
against a changing background, and its eyes respond after the
statistically minimal period needed to verify actual movement.
This may, of course, also explain not only how our own neurons
work but also why they seem to take so long. The paper is NATURE
(412(2001) 787-792).

I hope that this answers your questions.

              Best wishes and long long life for all,

                   Thomas Donaldson

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