From: Psy-Kosh (psykosh@earthlink.net)
Date: Thu Mar 13 2003 - 08:49:57 MST
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> > Just saw this:
> > http://www.newscientist.com/news/print.jsp?id=ns99993488
>
> (Hippocampal replacement implant.)
>
> Coolness factor off the scale, but my guess is that, mysteriously,
it will
> turn out not to work, and no one ever quite gets it to work until
they
> figure out what the algorithms are doing.
>
Why do you guess that?
I imagine something like that may happen with trying to replace
other parts of the brain simply because, as far as I know, we're not
quite sure yet (correct me if I'm wrong here) what signals/etc in the
brain control the alteration of synaptic weights and the creation of
new synapses, so we can't yet make something that would reproduce
that functionality in a way that the rest of the brain could use.
Oh, btw, since we're on the topic anyways, for a Moravec
transfer, we'd actually likely need to transfer more than just the
nervous system of the person in question. Part of the various
feedback loops in the mind apperently involve the rest of the body
more than we usually think, so untill we begin actually altering the
workings of our minds, not just the substrate, we'd need a virtual
body that did stuff like had its virtual heart race when we got
virtually nervous, for instance. (The idea of the importance of the
rest of the body in the workings of the mind is argued by Antonio
Damasio in the book _Descartes' Error_)
> Also, everyone please remember SL4's policy on one-line posts, or,
heck,
> *any* posts that are less than sparkling with effervescent wit,
which is
> that such posts belong on the Extropians list. :P
>
Eeep, sorry about that. As pennance I present the following pieces
evidenence that we may actually not be utterly at the mercy of a
UFAI:
http://www.dragon-tails.com/comics/archive.php?date=021028
and
http://www.bobandgeorge.com/Archive/Jan02.php?date=29
- --
Psy-Kosh
OpenPGP KeyID: 39A6DB9B71AD88B3
ICQ#47621625
"The scientist who would rather refute than comprehend demonstrates
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