X-Message-Number: 7869
Date:  Sun, 16 Mar 97 13:17:34 
From: Mike Perry <>
Subject: Uploading

On Sat, 15 Mar 1997, Arkady Elgort wrote (#7857):

>As Thomas Donaldson mentioned, even massively parallel computers
>cannot model anything like human brain. Therefore uploading into some
>unknown machine has no scientific grounds whatsoever. Brain repair
>after suspension also could prove impossible, but at least we KNOW
>that biological brains do (sometimes) work.;)

There is good reason to think that the human brain can be described 
as a finite-state machine, a very complex one to be sure. This 
follows from basic physics--every system bounded in spatial extent 
and energy content is a finite-state machine at the quantum level, 
which includes the human brain. 
(A discussion of this can be found in *The Physics of Immortality* by 
Frank Tipler.) Since a computer is also a finite-state machine that 
can emulate other finite-state machines, this provides "some 
scientific grounds" for the possibility of uploading--and remember
there's no proof that cryonics patients can be
resuscitated either, but again, just evidence. As for 
uploading, if/when it happens it will no doubt involve a combination 
of computers more powerful than ours today, and better 
understanding of the problem so we don't have to do a brute-force 
emulation at the atomic level.

Mike Perry

http://www.alcor.org


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