[ExI] pets, mirrors and cryonics

[spike]

-----Original Message-----
From: extropy-chat-bounces at lists.extropy.org
[mailto:extropy-chat-bounces at lists.extropy.org] On Behalf Of Jeff Davis
...

>...To such semi-random speculations, I can now add another "data point.
Spike's AD patient remembered with clarity (my read) the person's face,
name, and the contextual circumstances of a brief (but apparently memorable)
encounter twenty years back.  What is the difference between this arcane,
virtually-never-accessed, yet robust memory, and the high-traffic
fading-fast memories of day to day?

Ja, as far as I can tell, there are no other memories of that vacation by
the patient from that vacation, but I have one that is crystal clear.  We
went to a museum at the Petrified Forest National Park.  In that museum they
had on display the skeleton of a hadrosaur, a particularly well-preserved
example.  Unlike most dinosaur skeletons, this one was displayed so that
proles could get right up almost close enough to touch.  I was so astonished
by this whole museum.  The family indulged me while they ate lunch and I
looked carefully at everything.  I spent about half an hour examining that
skeleton.  One of the things I noticed is that the fossil skeleton had
insertion scars where the tendon attaches to the bone.  It looks just like
insertions in modern beasts.  For some reason that totally amazed me.

>...First guess: high-traffic vs low-traffic.  Could the higher level of
metabolic activity in AD-challenged neurons correlate with a more rapid
accumulation of metabolic by-products -- amyloid beta and tau tangles -- and
thus their more rapid decline? ...

Could be that, but my notion is that if we just stimulated those idle minds,
they might still be moderately functional.  


>...As always Spike, my brother, best wishes.  Jeff
_______________________________________________

Thanks Jeff.  Now since you are a known very creative thinker, let's see
those brains spill some ideas on how to write low-input software for
seniors, some of whom have never used a computer and don't want to start,
but would go for a cool useful sim that would allow them some semblance of
an existence, even they cannot themselves go outdoors.

spike