X-Message-Number: 21310 Date: Fri, 28 Feb 2003 08:38:24 -0500 From: Thomas Donaldson <> Subject: CryoNet #21298 - #21306 For Mr Kluytmans: I am glad you have clarified your point about information versus persons. That clarification is VITAL, in many senses... even if it would take a great deal of argument to convince me that duplication (or even getting the required full information about a particular person) was coming anytime in the near future, say the next few centuries. For Brian Stewart: First, I confess not to have been exact about just how neurons work, even though it's quite possible that they do use circuits which exploit randomness and static. Such circuits are discussed in a short article in PERIASTRON 4(9)(1998) (years ago!) p. 6. That article is based on two articles, one in NATURE (391(1998) 770-772) on Belousov-Zhabotinsky reactions, and one in SCIENCE (279(1998) 1198-1200) on doing the same with light. It turns out that the SCIENCE article is based on ideas used to do the same thing in "a specially designed chaotic electrical circuit". Given the way neurons behave, they MAY use such systems, but so far no one seems to have prove a case that they do. As for behavior of multiple neurons in our brain, it's vital that they can synchronize their spiking. Electrical currents made by neurons consist of multiple spikes, all of the same voltage height, and all at a given fixed rate. Neurons exist in our brain, and get random electrical impulses from many other neurons (some have worked out that every neuron gets impulses from all the others). Synchronized spiking gives a way to communicate despite all the noise. Cf: SCIENCE (278997) 1950-1953) which experimentally proves this behavior in motor neurons. You may also be interested in studies of how a fly's eyes work. The fly must see movement against a changing background, and its eyes respond after the statistically minimal period needed to verify actual movement. This may, of course, also explain not only how our own neurons work but also why they seem to take so long. The paper is NATURE (412(2001) 787-792). I hope that this answers your questions. Best wishes and long long life for all, Thomas Donaldson Rate This Message: http://www.cryonet.org/cgi-bin/rate.cgi?msg=21310