[extropy-chat] Wetware vs. Hardware (was IQ vs Upload)

[Mike Lorrey]

This story is remarkable given all the hewing and frowing a few months
ago about how 'dead' a certain Florida woman supposedly was...

--- Dirk Bruere <dirk at neopax.com> wrote:
>
http://flatrock.org.nz/topics/science/is_the_brain_really_necessary.htm
> 
> Later, a colleague at Sheffield University became aware of a young
> man 
> with a larger than normal head.  He was referred to Lorber even
> though 
> it had not caused him any difficulty.  Although the boy had an IQ of
> 126 
> and had a first class honours degree in mathematics, he had
> "virtually 
> no brain".  A noninvasive measurement of radio density known as CAT
> scan 
> showed the boy's skull was lined with a thin layer of brain cells to
> a 
> millimeter in thickness.  The rest of his skull was filled with 
> cerebrospinal fluid.  The young man continues a normal life with the 
> exception of his knowledge that he has no brain.
> 
> Although anecdotal accounts may be found in medical literature,
> Lorber 
> is the first to provide a systematic study of such cases.  He has 
> documented over 600 scans of people with hydrocephalus and has broken
> 
> them into four groups:
> 
> bullet 	those with nearly normal brains
> bullet 	those with 50-70% of the cranium filled with cerebrospinal
> fluid
> bullet 	those with 70-90% of the cranium filled with cerebrospinal
> fluid
> bullet 	and the most severe group with 95% of the cranial cavity
> filled 
> with cerebrospinal fluid.
> 
> Of the last group, which comprised less than 10% of the study, half
> were 
> profoundly retarded.  The remaining half had IQs greater than 100.  
> Skeptics have claimed that it was an error of interpretation of the 
> scans themselves.  Lorber himself admits that reading a CAT scan can
> be 
> tricky.  He also has said that he would not make such a claim without
> 
> evidence.  In answer to attacks that he has not precisely quantified
> the 
> amount of brain tissue missing, he added, "I can't say whether the 
> mathematics student has a brain weighing 50 grams or 150 grams, but
> it 
> is clear that it is nowhere near the normal 1.5 kilograms."
> 
> Many neurologists feel that this is a tribute to the brain's
> redundancy 
> and its ability to reassign functions.  Others, however, are not so 
> sure.  Patrick Wall, professor of anatomy at University College,
> London 
> states "To talk of redundancy is a cop-out to get around something
> you 
> don't understand."
> 
> Norman Geschwind, a neurologist at Boston's Beth Israel Hospital
> agrees: 
> "Certainly the brain has a remarkable capacity for reassigning
> functions 
> following trauma, but you can usually pick up some kind of deficit
> with 
> the right tests, even after apparently full recovery."
> 
> 
> -- 
> Dirk
> 
> The Consensus:-
> The political party for the new millenium
> http://www.theconsensus.org
> 
> 
> 
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Mike Lorrey
Vice-Chair, 2nd District, Libertarian Party of NH
"Necessity is the plea for every infringement of human freedom.
It is the argument of tyrants; it is the creed of slaves."
                                      -William Pitt (1759-1806) 
Blog: http://intlib.blogspot.com


		
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