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

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