X-Message-Number: 5200 Date: Thu, 16 Nov 1995 21:35:05 -0800 From: John K Clark <> Subject: How much brain resolution do we need? -----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- How much brain resolution do we need? Neurons are fantastically complicated electrochemical machines, and there are trillions in your head, but I am not convinced that we must extract every nuance of information from every one of them in order to have a successful upload, or brain repair. Much of the information is generic and has nothing to do with your individually. Even a lot of the information that is uniquely yours, that which makes you be you, does not reside only in the brain cells, it's in your DNA, it's in every cell in your body and it's easy to preserve. Consider the things neurons do. 1) General housekeeping: This keeps us alive and is astoundingly complicated, but it's the same sort of thing every cell on earth does. Nothing unique here. 2) Short term memory: If I am unable to remember the last 10 minutes of my life before I am frozen I don't consider that a major disadvantage. 3) Long term memory formation: It's not clear how much this process varies from individual to individual and how much of it is important for our individually. Let's be conservative and assume all of it is and that we all store information in our own unique way. We can discover what this process is even if we never look at neurons. Not the memories but the process we use to form memories must be encoded in DNA and you have lots and lots of that. The DNA does not tell you what the program is, so to speak, but it does tell you how to make the hard drive. 4) Long term memory retrieval: Same remarks, see above. 5) Long term memory storage: This is why we freeze brains, it's vitally important information if we want to preserve identity and the brain is the only place that contains it. This is the part of the brain we need to worry about, I think it's the only part we need to worry about. I hope nobody asks me for a reference to what I say next because I have none, it's pure speculation. It occurs to me that a large book can be written by a small pen , a large painting can be made by a small brush and if you want something to last for the long term it is a good idea to make it substantial. Because of this, it may not be unreasonable to expect that long term memory storage functions at a physically larger scale than the processes that produce it. Some have mentioned that dendrite spines might be important. Perhaps, for memory formation, and in any rate it's a lot larger than the chemical, nanometer, scale. Before somebody beats me to it let me say that speculation is fine but it's no substitute for facts and the only way to get that is through experiment. I'd be a lot happier if we had a better understanding about how memory storage worked. John K Clark -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- Version: 2.6.i iQCzAgUBMKwcnn03wfSpid95AQGzxATw1G1sBNXoj7EwKWJ4Lhxt1fdUL9UmyvFV IgQoMwjRIULivcRoTkT9EyHK+InoTLMfJ0nD/CvnAqQCH4itRft/cQdS05LPwPW5 Y1fSDgbJxLX5UjB/T0C9zUCnpbcK2OQievW1ZNitvEJCwVd3SrzFgzh9fivDeLbi t014/wxjPvIqRMyXD5kUVD++wXka/g2TVj6fJvGZx9/2GGu/EdM= =r+Fl -----END PGP SIGNATURE----- Rate This Message: http://www.cryonet.org/cgi-bin/rate.cgi?msg=5200