X-Message-Number: 17501 Date: Mon, 10 Sep 2001 09:25:45 -0400 From: Thomas Donaldson <> Subject: CryoNet #17487 - #17496 Hi everyone (Mike Perry in particular): Given two the traits of the neural nets which make us up (ability to form new connections and grow new neurons) we may actually NEED those traits in order for our brain to behave like the brains we know. Yes, highly intelligent computers might be buildable without those traits, but at the same time they would also lack such things as our personal will and emotions. Again, we have a sense of ourselves which comes from our brain circuitry in ways not yet fully understood. If we make a computer then it may well not have such a sense of itself. I really meant what I said: even as computers, we're likely to have particular traits which not all computers have, and which may well say something quite particular about how we are built. Traits such as the growth of new neurons may actually impose limits on just how we can be built. Those limits would not require that our metabolism be that of present human beings, but might well mean that we could not be imitated by simple electrical circuits, as an example. To some degree just how we are designed remains open. Even the simple notion of awareness has produced a variety of computer theories as to how it might work. We might not even fill the current definition of "computer". All these are senses in which our design, even if unknown to ourselves and to anyone who knows us, may bring in traits which cannot be imitated by an arbitrary computer. In one sense this point may be obvious: we do not spend our time computing, we spend our time on other things such as perception. We can do computing, but it's not our finest trait. Where I differ from Ettinger, however, is that I believe we should actually try to FIGURE OUT those differences ... not just to make a new variety of device (a "human computer???") but even to understand how we work, for repair and improvement. And I think that is a presently doable task. Best wishes and long long life to all, Thomas Donaldson Rate This Message: http://www.cryonet.org/cgi-bin/rate.cgi?msg=17501