X-Message-Number: 26974
Date: Thu, 8 Sep 2005 10:30:16 -0400
From: Thomas Donaldson <>
Subject: Comments for Leitl and Yvan B

TO Various:

For E Leitl: It looks as if you agree with me about embalming. I would
say that if anyone really wants to keep someone revivable by that
method, using nanotechnology or any other means, thare are lots of 
questions which must be answered first. I'll add that someday (although
low enough temperatures are automatic far enough from the Sun) I
would not be surprised if such work is actually done, and those
needing long term preservation will go through a special (nanotech?)
treatment which fixes them. But that's not presently reachable.

For Yvan Bozzonetti:
Going backwards, your discussion of synapses and dendrites looks way out of
date to me. I've said before that our circuitry changes as part of learning
(and probably for other reasons too).
Second, (or first), what you are claiming is that if a processor works
fast enough, then it can substitute for many slower processors. Whether
that is possible depends on a lot of factors, and it's not just how fast
this single processor may be. Our body works by doing lots of things
literally simultaneously. Simple walking, if you think about it, gives
a good example; and remember that while you're walking you're doing lots
of other things too. If the output of each processor is needed by the 
other, then you won't be able to combine their activities into just one
processor: it will do the job of one processor and halt because it does
not have the results of the other, which it needs to go further. This is
a problem which does not depend on speed.

I may simply not answer you the next time you raise this argument,
basically because I don't wish to repeat myself, and I believe my point
here is simple and easy to understand. And as I said before, if you 
wish to try to devise a neuron using outmoded ideas of how neurons
work, then go ahead, I can't prevent you.

           Best wishes and long long life for all,

                Thomas Donaldson

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