X-Message-Number: 7987 Date: Tue, 01 Apr 97 09:42:48 From: Mike Perry <> Subject: 3 Topics 1. Self-Circuit I have a book, *The Hedonistic Neuron* by A. Harry Klopf (Hemisphere Publishing Corp., 1982) that advances the hypothesis that the seat of consciousness (including feeling) is the midbrain-thalamic reticular formation or MTRF. I'm not sure if this has been confirmed or refuted by more recent research (anybody have info?). But there is a possible candidate for the self-circuit. On the other hand, I'm not sure to what extent the MTRF is subject to information accumulation and/or other modifications over time. Even though it may be the seat of feeling, it still may be relatively easy to replace--thus not one of the important parts to preserve in cryonic suspension (though for practical reasons we would preserve it along with the rest of the brain). 2. Universal Language I will propose a universal language, and a simple (if slightly technical) argument for why such a language ought to be possible. The language: Lisp, which can express computer programs but could also be used to encode mathematical theorems, physics, etc. Of course, any other reasonable computer language would do too--all can be converted into each other via polynomial-time algorithms. (I think Lisp, or something like it, would make an especially good choice due to the simple syntax and programming philosophy.) If we assume our advanced aliens have computers, and (what goes with them) a reasonable subset of known mathematics including integer arithmetic, then they too should have programming languages that could be converted to ours or vice versa via polynomial-time algorithms. This does not assume the aliens have any particuar sensory apparatus such as vision, etc. But our messages, which they would receive, would be encoded in a bit stream. The aliens would naturally be curious about such messages (it is reasonable to speculate) and would try various programs of theirs to convert these messages into something intelligible to them. Since the possible programs can be effectively enumerated, after a finite amount of trying they should find a successful translation program, whose correctness would be verified over and over as they processed more and more of our messages. 3. Immortalist Publishing House: I am interested in setting up a publishing operation, and getting rights to out-of-print books that relate to the theme of immortalism. These are books that "mainstream" publishers are not eager to keep in print, due to the currently small interest, but still they are important books that ought to be available for those interested. (Example: Bob Ettinger's *The Prospect of Immortality*.) Anybody with ideas or proposals, your contribution is welcome. Mike Perry http://www.alcor.org Rate This Message: http://www.cryonet.org/cgi-bin/rate.cgi?msg=7987