X-Message-Number: 25005 Date: Tue, 9 Nov 2004 06:53:09 -0500 From: Thomas Donaldson <> Subject: CryoNet #24995 - #25003 To the NanoAging Institute: I would be very surprised if current technology can adequately imitate our hippocampus. The reasons are very simple, and a good series of articles about how our brain REALLY works recently appeared in the 12 Oct 2004 issue of NATURE. Basically, it doesn't work at all like any contemporary computer, but by changing its circuits and creating new neurons when needed. The dentate gyrus, part of our hippocampus, is one brain area for which virtually all neuroscientists now agree that it makes new neurons; it's also an area concerned with acquiring new memories. While I don't wish to claim that only biotech devices can imitate brains, I will say that any device able to do so is going to look more like a device from biology than one from electronics. I don't see any fundamental reason why nanotechnology couldn't play an important role in its creation. But unless these guys have made a neural net which really behaves like those of our brains, they haven't succeeded. Best wishes and long long life to all, Thomas Donaldson PS: And yes, I have been studying how brains actually work in and for my newsletter PERIASTRON, simply because I think that our ability to revive someone badly damaged by freezing, embalming, removal of their brains and placement of its pieces in the abdomen, etc etc etc --- all of that will depend on how well we understand how brains work. Rate This Message: http://www.cryonet.org/cgi-bin/rate.cgi?msg=25005