X-Message-Number: 2734 From: (Thomas Donaldson) Subject: CRYONICS:a.comment.about.biological.nanotechnology Date: Sun, 8 May 1994 23:24:03 -0700 (PDT) Hi again! I have recently encountered, among cryonicists who should really know better, a surprising lack of imagination about the possibilities open to BIOLOGICAL manipulation. Perhaps this lies behind some part of Nanotechnology: we have all grown up in a world in which human beings freely manipulated (that is, did engineering with) inanimate physical objects, but never touched living things in the same way. And so, the natural impulse is always to think of a machine (in the sense that it is made of parts which have no relation to living matter). But the perspective of a biological engineer on nanotechnology and the entire field of nanoscopic manipulation is and has been quite different. First of all, to anyone aware of enzymes and how they work, Feynmann's ideas seem trite at best. They work with such "machines" daily. How could it be an insight that we might someday deal with matter on a nanoscale if you are a chemist or biochemist? And more than that first difference, if you approach these subjects with the speculative mind of an engineer, many things seem possible. I have recently heard one cryonicist, who I will not name, state that if we only saved our brains, we would then live ever afterwards in some kind of "tank". The science fiction story DONOVAN'S BRAIN was mentioned. Our brains, of course, do exist in "tanks" right now: we call these tanks skulls, and the fluid surrounding our brains is the cerebrospinal fluid and (of course) blood. And if you follow all the studies of development and growth in fruitflies, mice, and other experimental animals, it becomes clear that just as we eventually came to understand genes, we will someday understand completely the means by which genes express themselves: which is development, of which aging is only a subfield. What we can do with brains is to make them grow bodies. And yes, this process may require a period in a large (artificial) uterus, while the brain first splits off a few cells which then start multiplying into a body to surround it. And since this body grew from the brain, it would be a clone of the one that patient lost in their suspension. If cryonicists are to discuss what will someday become possible, then it behooves them to keep track of the many possibilities available, BOTH through highly evolved versions of nanomachines which do NOT originate from life forms AND similar nanomachines which DO. Long long life, Thomas Donaldson PS: And if you think that an understanding of genes will change many things wait until we understand growth and development! Rate This Message: http://www.cryonet.org/cgi-bin/rate.cgi?msg=2734