X-Message-Number: 4342
Date: Wed, 3 May 1995 15:15:21 -0700 (PDT)
From: "Joseph J. Strout" <>
Subject: Re: Neural Nets and computers

Thomas Donaldson wrote:

> receptacles for our Selves) fades away into the mist. The only thing an

> advocate of uploading is saying, then, is that someday we can transfer 
ourselvesto another better object for manipulating information. Biologically 
based
> objects are entirely within the ambit of this definition. In fact, the notion
> of uploading itself becomes a bit obscure (recall that neural nets, among 
> other things, don't have their memory uploaded into them, they are trained). 
> So just what will happen between us and this other superior creature/thing.
> object/set of circuits/whatnot? 
>	...
> so far seem to make the whole issue of uploading sound very strange, saying

> no more than that we can someday improve ourselves. Yes, I think we can 
someday
> improve ourselves too, but what happened to uploading?

Actually, I think this is exactly the correct view of uploading.  In the 
weak sense (to which I adhere), it means coping our minds to a 
manufactured device.  This device may or may not be a symbolic computer; 
it may be made of silicon, or glass, or maybe proteins and lipids.  The 
important thing (which makes it an improvement over our current brains) 
is that it can be repaired and maintained more accurately over the 
centuries, and that the information which defines the mind is easily read 
out for backups or transfer to newer hardware.  I don't see this as a 
superhuman panacea (e.g., thinking billions of times faster than we 
currently do or having vastly improved memory, etc.), but rather a means 
to cure (almost) all diseases and eliminate involuntary death.

,------------------------------------------------------------------.
|    Joseph J. Strout           Department of Neuroscience, UCSD   |
|               http://sdcc3.ucsd.edu/~jstrout/    |
`------------------------------------------------------------------'


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