X-Message-Number: 11068 From: Thomas Donaldson <> Subject: More on uploading: it is NOT going to be imminent Date: Mon, 11 Jan 1999 23:23:16 +1100 (EST) Hi everyone! To Yvan: We don't really know whether uploading will be so easy. The information you give in your message isn't about uploading, but about a system which just might be able to emulate the intellectual operation of a cat (to really emulate a cat it would need the proper senses and body). What may well happen is that we'll all be presented with one more illustration of just how difficult it is to make computers capable of many things which seem trivially easy to us --- and cats. I await the outcome of this work with interest. For cryonics, uploading within the natural lifespan of anyone reading this seems a totally lost cause. We may well be able to SOMEDAY find ways to produce creatures to which we could upload ourselves --- I am optimistic about such technology in the very long term. I doubt that we would now call them "computers", or even their brains (or whatever substitutes for a brain) "computers" either... any more than we would call our present floodlights "candles". I do not intend to plan for my continuation by working or supporting work on uploading. Best wishes and long long life to all, Thomas Donaldson Rate This Message: http://www.cryonet.org/cgi-bin/rate.cgi?msg=11068