X-Message-Number: 3858
Date: Wed, 15 Feb 1995 21:19:32 -0800
From: John K Clark <>
Subject: SCI.CRYONICS Uploading

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 (Thomas Donaldson) wrote:
	  
	     >think of neurons not as single objects which send YES-NO
	     >messages but as  objects which themselves are small "computers"
	     
You can think of artificial neurons as little computers,
trivially simple ones compared with general cell repair machines. 
If artificial neurons are impossibly difficult then
certainly the enormously more complex general cell repair
machines are as well and without them cryonics is a joke.
	     
	       >Any simulations, of course, must also deal with message
	       >passing by chemical  means, too.
	    
About 60 neurotransmitters are known but only a few of those are
involved in long range signaling, even if the true number is 100
times greater ( or a million times for that matter) the
information content of each signal must be tiny. Also exactly
which neuron receives the signal is not critical ( it relies on
diffusion, a random process) and it's incredibly slow. I see no
reason why simulating that anachronism would present the slightest
difficulty.
	    
	     >They want to be uploaded into some IDEAL computer which by
	     >definition has all the features required 
	  
Yes it's true, I admit it, a computer that doesn't have all the
features required won't work because it doesn't have all the
features required.
	  
	      >The only computers we know of which are presently capable of
	      >emulating  human beings in real time are known as human brains.
		 
Right now that's true but that won't always be the case..  
		 
	      >They also seem to do a good job of it.
	      
A computer that can't perform simple arithmetic as well as a 2
dollar calculator, has great difficulty putting even one page of
text into long term memory, is guaranteed to fail catastrophically 
and has no means of arranging a backup is doing a crummy job.
 
				    John K Clark        

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