Re: ant! experiences

Joe E. Dees (jdees0@students.uwf.edu)
Wed, 21 Oct 1998 23:29:03 -0500 

Date sent:      	Wed, 21 Oct 1998 21:02:54 -0700
From:           	Spike Jones <spike66@ibm.net>
To:             	extropians@extropy.com
Subject:        	Re: ant! experiences
Send reply to:  	extropians@extropy.com



> > > my notion at the time was that humans could actually reinvent
> > > ourselves if we mastered nanotech, so that our scale would not
> > > be 2 meters but rather 2 millimeters...
>
> > Joe E. Dees wrote:...There is a certain Godelian critical mass of
> > cortical complexity (translation: quantity of neurons and synaptic
 > > connections) necessary for the emergence of self-reference (and
> > much more for context-sensitively evolving self-and-other
> > consciousness). ...
>
> joe, i wouldnt argue that we could be smart with fewer neurons
> and synaptic connections. i am supposing that each neuron and
> synapse could be three orders smaller than ours. spike

it's logically possible, yes, but technically plausible? I would say no (or at least not while any of US live). Joe