X-Message-Number: 7833 From: Date: Tue, 11 Mar 97 14:57:25 +1000 Subject: cryonics before uploads? Hi Thomas. Greeting from Australia (aren't you missing it?). In cryonet Message #7645, you wrote: <<As for uploading yourself, I personally doubt that will become possible until some time after those frozen now have been revived. My understanding of how brains work, particularly how memory works, have led me to that conclusion. Naturally I'm happy to explain further (and give scientific references to the many papers which convinced me of this). >> Considering the advances in neural networks and of interconnections between silicon electronics and nerve cells, my feeling is that effective repairs to parts of the brain may be acheivable within ten to fifteen years, and that uploading will follow in a similar time-frame. That may sound optimistic, but electronic capabilities have advanced rapidly (Moore's law=two years doubling in capabilities) and I'm sure that biogical capabilities will follow a similar curve, in line with the growth in knowledge of proteins, genetics, and biological mechanisms generally. And understanding of brain pathways and functioning is also growing rapidly, much more quickly than is our cryonics knowledge. OTOH, some excellent technical postings recently in cryonet have given me some hope that cryonics might be making some progress at last. But after two decades of seemingly very slow progress, including (sadly) the slow funding commitment to Prometheus, I am far from convinced that cryonics will become available before uploading. This is not to say that we should give up on cryonics, most certainly not. (There will undoubtedly be spinoffs and life-saving technologies which come from cryonic research). But I certainly would like to know your views on why cryonics might succeed earlier than uploading. All the best, Graham Rate This Message: http://www.cryonet.org/cgi-bin/rate.cgi?msg=7833