X-Message-Number: 3539
Date: Tue, 27 Dec 1994 22:38:45 -0800
From: John K Clark <>
Subject: SCI.CRYONICS Good news for uploaders
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Preserving memory is of vital importance to Cryonics and to
those who'd like to upload someday. To do this we need to
understand the molecular basis of memory. The most important
storage mechanism is thought by most to be Long Term
Potentiation ( LTP). It theorizes that memory is encoded by
varying the strength of the 10^14 synapses that connect the 10^11
neurons in the human brain. It had been thought that LTP
could be specified to a single synapse so each synapse was
equivalent to one computer bit, perhaps several bits ,but now it
looks like that is a vast overstatement.
In the January 28 1994 issue of Science Dan Madison and Erin
Schuman report that LTP spreads out ( the LTP signal is probably
sent by the diffusion of nitric oxide) to a large number of
synapses on many different neurons. The individual synapse
cannot be the computer bit of the brain. Neural Net expert
Terrence Sejnowski commented on these new findings " Instead of
thinking of a synapse as representing a piece of information you
can now begin thinking of a population of potentiated synapses
acting together".
All this severely reduces the storage capacity of the brain but
increases it's redundancy. This is good news if we want to
repair a badly damaged frozen brain. Also, although it may hurt
our pride to think that our essence can be defined with less
information than we thought, it also means that uploading will
be easier ; there's less you need to upload.
John K Clark
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