X-Message-Number: 3281
From: Brian Wowk <>
Date: Mon, 17 Oct 94 01:05:06 CDT
Subject: CRYONICS Reply to David Stodolsky

David Stodolsky:
 
> The brain backup option can be explored independent of progress in
> cryonics, and as such it represents a valuable path. Even without
> a practical implication, it represents a solid theoretical alternative,
> which can be used as an existence proof. Merkel's work has already
> show this. Unfortunately, his approach illustrates that there is currently
> a very high financial barrier to brain backup. However, it shows how
> to convert a physiological problem into an information processing
> problem. This is a major advance since the rational person can no
> longer say, "it can not work", only "it is too expensive".
 
        Oh no, not again!  Didn't we already have this discussion 
three years ago David? :)  In what sense is brain backup "a valuable 
path"?  What is it an "alternative" to?  Not cryonics.  Not *today*.
 
        Will brain backup be an alternative to cryonics in the future?  
Absolutely, positively, not.  In 10 years we will probably be able to 
crypreserve whole brains perfectly.  In 40 years we will probably be 
able to *reversibly* cryopreserve entire bodies.  In 60 years we may 
even have some form of reversible *room temperature* biostasis 
allowing indefinite storage.  And maybe, just maybe 60 or 70 years 
from now we will have the nanomachinery and computing resources to 
economically read out and store the fine structure of someone's brain.  
However by that time people will hardly be dying of anything anymore, 
and when they are there will be medical alternatives available that 
are far superior to being reduced to binary bits.
 
        None of this is to say that brain backup, or similar ideas 
like outright brain replication, aren't useful life extension ideas.  
Of course they are.  But these ideas are complements, not alternatives 
to cryonics.  More importantly, they will not be available for a VERY 
long time.
 
                                                --- Brian Wowk
 
P.S. I've read Ralph Merkle's "Large Scale Analysis of Neural 
Structures" monograph too.  In it even Ralph admits, "A complete 
analysis of the cellular connectivity of a structure as large as the 
human brain is only *a few decades away*." (emphasis mine).  And Ralph 
is an optimist.

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