X-Message-Number: 4172
From:  (Thomas Donaldson)
Subject: optical computing
Date: Sat, 8 Apr 1995 17:44:57 -0700 (PDT)

I agree that we will probably turn to using light in our computers. I'm also
very interested to see someone who is both interested in uploading and also
discusses it in terms of neural nets. (Whether neural nets really fall under
the definition of computers is another matter!). Fundamentally I doubt that
there is any other way to effectively upload ourselves than into a machine
working by way of neural nets --- though the exact neural nets are also
likely to make a big difference.

And of course, referring to a very local controversy about uploading, it seems
to me an important fact that unlike computers, neural nets do not work on
symbols as such. They are devices with great adaptive power in their responses
to physical inputs: faces, voices, etc ... not just input of symbols.

We still need to learn a great deal more about our brains and how they work
before we can make any serious proposals about uploading. I personally think
that by that time it wouldn't look like "uploading" at all: the word (wrongly
or rightly) connotes something that you do to a computer program. Since we are
not computer programs, something else will be required: especially if we use
neural net devices, which (arguably, yes) are not computers.

			Best and long long life,

				Thomas Donaldson


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