X-Message-Number: 22318
Date: Sun, 10 Aug 2003 10:07:29 -0400
From: Thomas Donaldson <>
Subject: CryoNet #22312 - #22316

Here Mike Perry and I go at it again:

It's all very well to talk of replacing the "organic" components of
our brain with "inorganic" ones, but actually doing so raises a
multitude of problems. Brains do not work like any computers
presently existing. It's not even clear that Turing's ideas apply
to them, since some and perhaps all of their processors are subject
to constant replacement. The processors I mention are neurons,
which have several different types, each acting as a tiny computer
in itself but serving several different roles depending n their
type. For that matter, connections between neurons (synapses)
don't remain constant, unlike those of normal computers.

Just what Perry means by "organic" here become more and more vague
the more we think about how brains really work. Nor could machines
of any kind (including electronic machines) give us any sort of
immortality: it is living things that can repair themselves, while
repair or replacement of any kind of machinery becomes much more
cumbersome (at a minimum) and impossible at worst. If you want
immortality, then work out how we can repair ourselves much more
extensively than we now can (and neuroscientists are working now
on ways to help brains repair themselves). 

               Best wishes and long long life for all,

                     Thomas Donaldson

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