[extropy-chat] Cryonics questions...

[spike]

> bounces at lists.extropy.org] On Behalf Of spike
...
> ... it isn't so much resurrection after being frozen as it is being
> read and simulated... imagine nanobots mapping it layer by layer,
> possibly destructively, then making a holodeck simulation ... spike


Another possibility my custom version of Kurzweil's notion of inloading.

A brain is about a couple of kilograms and 12 grams of carbon is 6E23 atoms
and a brain is mostly carbon, so 2000 grams of that is about 6E23/12*2000 =
1e26 atoms.  Wikipedia says that a human brain has about 100 billion
neurons, and each of those has a bunch of synapses.  So 1E11 neurons in 1e26
atoms makes 1e15 atoms per neuron, a million billion atoms per neuron if you
prefer.  The fact that a bunch of these neurons do stuff that I would no
longer need if I had no body gives us conservative BOTECs.

I have a notion that at some future time, nanobots of perhaps a million
atoms each could enter a frozen brain, not at liquid nitrogen temperatures
but perhaps a few tens of degrees below zero celcius so that they have a
solid medium in which to work.  These might tunnel in thru the blood vessels
all the way down to the capillaries, perhaps removing the now unnecessary
blood cells.  They would enter the brain cells and join together to form
nanocomputers, perhaps a million nanobots per cell.  The million nanobots in
the cell would perform a calculation that simulates the workings of that
cell.  

The nanobots would build conductors, perhaps out of nanotubes, to carry
signals between the neurons.  The nanobot constructed nanocomputers within
the brain would stay in place, simulating that brain.  If the nanobots were
made of carbon and each nanobot has a million atoms and each of the hundred
billion neurons had a million nanonbots, that is 1e6(carbon atoms per
nanobot)*1E11(neurons)*1E6(nanobots/neuron) = 1E23 carbon atoms, which is
about 2 grams of carbon.  

If each neuron has a thousand synapses and the nanotubes for each synapse
requires a billion carbon atoms to make a conductor that does what synapses
do, then 1E11(neurons)*1E3(synapses/neuron)*1E9(atoms/synapse)=1e23 carbon
atoms, which is another 2 grams of carbon.

In this scenario, 4 grams of nanobots could infiltrate a frozen brain and
simulate it in place as an inload.  Interestingly, this would allow signals
to go down the neck to a robot body, as it did back when that head guided
and rode about atop a meat body.  The head would need to remain frozen below
water ice temperatures, but this would allow that head to go places that we
cannot go, such as Mars.

Granted this describes remarkable technology, but is not our current
technology remarkable compared to that which Thomas Jefferson had at his
disposal?

spike