Re: Lilliputian Posthumians

Joe E. Dees (jdees0@students.uwf.edu)
Wed, 21 Oct 1998 16:56:36 -0500

Date sent:      	Wed, 21 Oct 1998 13:05:45 -0700 (PDT)
From:           	Joe Jenkins <joe_jenkins@yahoo.com>
Subject:        	Re: Lilliputian Posthumians 
To:             	extropians@extropy.com
Send reply to:  	extropians@extropy.com

>
> ---"Joe E. Dees" <jdees0@students.uwf.edu> wrote:
>
> > Each neuron has up to 40,000 connections with other neurons, and
> > there are more than 30 billion (not million) of them in a human brain
> > weighing approximately 3 1/2 pounds. As complex and miniaturized
> > as it already is, and considering that the interaction of genetics
> and
> > experience has endowed each brain with a unique (although similar)
> > connection pattern, the difficulties involved in further shrinking
> them
> > are daunting, to say the least.
>
> I cannot improve on the case made by Drexler on this:
>
> Go to:
> http://www.foresight.org/EOC/EOC_Chapter_5.html
> and scroll down about 3/4 of the way.
>
> What parts of his arguments are flawed?
>

There is a vast difference between logically possible and empirically plausible. The simultaneous mastery of miniaturization and complexity involved in creating a single nanobrain capable of both explicit self-awareness and continuous self-modification in response to environmental input while maintaining such a self-referential conscious identity would of necessity dwarf the totality of human technical achievement from stone age to present. Drexler's article reads like excellent speculative fiction, but imagination, no matter how superb, does not automatically lead to manifestation or reification.
> Joe Jenkins
> joe_jenkins@yahoo.com
> _________________________________________________________
> DO YOU YAHOO!?
> Get your free @yahoo.com address at http://mail.yahoo.com