X-Message-Number: 889
Subject: Cryonics: Upload a worm?
Date: Thu, 11 Jun 92 14:25:13 -0400
From: 

There are simple animals that have nervous systems that have been
completely mapped.  Has anyone tried the following experiment:

   train such a creature to have a simple conditioned reflex, 
   kill it, 
   examine all of its neurons and the connections between them, 
   simulate its nervous system on a computer

This would be a success if the simulated version of the creature has
the same conditioned reflex.  

If this hasn't been done, what are the technical obstacles?  I can
imagine several possibilities:

   Computers are still too small
   The complete neural map was derived from many animals, and it isn't
      possible to get all of the synapse strengths from one animal.
   No one knows how to simulate a body and an environment well enough
      to test for the conditioned reflex in the uploaded animal.

but of course, that's all guesswork on my part.  

Tim

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