[ExI] simulation as an improvement over reality.

[John Clark]

On Jan 2, 2011, at 11:56 AM, Damien Broderick wrote:

> you have to hope nobody is stupid enough to perfectly copy your vitrified brain and leave it at that

So you're OK with obtaining all the information needed to make another identical living brain, but if you were to "leave it at that" it would be insufficient, something very important would be missing that is needed to preserve the real you; to do that you think it is vitally important to keep all the particular atoms in that vitrified brain, even though science can find no difference between one atom of the same element and another (sorry Damien, I know it annoys you when I bring up little things like that, FACTS that contradict your worldview, but there it is). 

Of course a vitrified brain by itself does nobody any good so you wouldn't even want to preserve the spacial arrangement in it, you want the arrangement of those sacred atoms to mimic how they were when the brain was alive and well, and to do that you need to know how those atoms were arranged when the brain was working properly; and that's where information comes in. You have implied that you don't mind obtaining that information provided you carefully retain all your original atoms too, because they somehow have your name scratched on them even though the scientific method cannot read that writing. 

So I guess even you would think the following procedure would work, use a brain slicing machine like the one invented by Kenneth J. Hayworth who has already made 30 nanometers thick slices of mouse brains:

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/12/28/science/28brainside.html?_r=1

Another good article at:

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/12/28/science/28brain.html?src=twrhp

After a slice is made an electron microscope is then used to make a high resolution photograph of each of those very very thin slices, he hasn't finished an entire mouse brain yet but Hayworth thinks they will in a few years. So long as the atoms in the slices were retained after they were photographed (for sentimental reasons or whatever) would you be satisfied that the brain made with that photographic information and constructed from the same atoms would be sufficient to preserve the real you? Hayworth thinks so, although he makes no mention of bothering to retain the original atoms. Some quotes from the above articles: 

“The circuitry of the brain will be mapped,” Mr. Hayworth predicted. “We will understand how this network of neurons is connected, how it stores memories, how it preserves the skills a person has and how these connections give rise to emotion.”
"Mr. Hayworth goes so far as to suggest that a person’s brain map could be replicated in a computer one day. In essence, someone could download their brain structure into a machine and have his or her personality live on."

“In 100 years, if we have the technology to bring someone back, it won’t be in a biological body,” he said. “It is these scanning techniques and mind-uploading that, I think, will bring people back.”

“This is a taboo topic in the scientific community,” he said. “But we have a cure to death right here. Why aren’t we pursuing it?” 

 John K Clark

       








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