X-Message-Number: 3907
Date: Sat, 25 Feb 1995 21:31:51 -0800
From: John K Clark <>
Subject: SCI.CRYONICS Uploading

-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE-----

 (Thomas Donaldson) in 3896 Wrote:

		  >For Mr. Clark I have nothing more to say.
   
I cheated, I kept on reading anyway.
   
		  >no present neural net design really matches the
		  >design of our brain.
		  
You keep saying that and I keep saying that I concede the fact
that the problem of artificial intelligence has not YET been
solved  and  that you don't need to solve it to do an upload.
Perhaps we could get a rubber stamp made.
		   
		  >Most serious simulations with a  single processor, 
		  >even of a largish neural  net, will take too long to
		  >match the real-time speed of our brains.
		   
Why would anybody try to do a complete simulation a human brain
using only one processor? It's theoretically possible sure, but
then, so is the toilet paper brain I talked about before. It
makes more sense to use the same architecture the brain uses, at
least at first. We don't need to understand it, just copy it. We
know it works we don't need to know why.
		  
		  > A lot of denigration of biological brains 
		  
Comes from other biological brains.
		 
		 >comes because of a lack of understanding. 
		 
By biological brains, yea, your right. Those biological brains
can't understand things worth a damn and are a bit on the slow side.
			
		 > They [an upload] may find it hard to distinguish from a 
		 >brain.
		  
Again I agree because mind is what brains do so anything that
does mind is a brain. 
		  
		 >I suspect that human beings have evolved to be
		 >fast enough for their current mode of life [...]  It does 
		 >no good to realize that a  threat is coming unless
		 >you can do something about it; similarly for a reward .
		 
Nature strives for adequacy not perfection so that's certainly
part of the reason, however, finding a reason that nature is a
poor designer  doesn't make the designs  any less poor.
		 
				    John K Clark         

-----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE-----
Version: 2.6.i

iQCzAgUBL1AMCn03wfSpid95AQHMKQTwmSp3xI/Smgo2FfwxxBmLBVLKz6buzxLs
+C5MpaTbmwvKSMgxbtOxU2OMgGsvy0qcETvQQshYC/PhsMHTbn+6/hrECrpfSI6J
SKw4a/P2x1Fhfe5e1LalVKhBW6kiCiMCTyBJ4Y+cYrCayD0gm20M3bepDRC96xNO
yYsWqJ2ozwrw00X+m54n9WwJTDJcMGQ78LOkgi0GOgWSEhPKXkc=
=Cge7
-----END PGP SIGNATURE-----



Rate This Message: http://www.cryonet.org/cgi-bin/rate.cgi?msg=3907