Re: uploading, etc..is it even conceivable (the "wet" objection)

Jonathan Colvin (jcolvin@ican.net)
Mon, 20 Jul 1998 02:35:33 -0700

Harvey Newstrom wrote:

"For my money, I would like to see one neuron at a time replaced with a
new one. I think everyone has agreed that this is an acceptable way to end up in a mechanical body. It also seems more likely given laws of physics, and probably cheaper with lower technology."

I'm not picking on you Harvey, but this seems like an opportune place to dipute the whole idea of uploading. It seems to rest on a very narrow model of consciousness that regards neurons as discrete computational elements that can be simulated. I think this model seriously de-emphasizes the chemical elements of consciousness...the enormously complicated stew of neurochemicals the washes thorugh our brains, and which seems to be a huge part of emotion/mood/perception....everything that we mean when we talk about consciousness. Our neural-nets are good at pattern recognition and lots of things that require computation, but I am of the opinion that much of consciousness is dependent on very complicated chemistry. You might say I am of the "wet" school of consciousness. And how can you upload norepinephrine?
(If this is going to start a thread that has already been thoroughly debated, forgive me...I'm new here and couldn't be bothered to search the archive.)

Jonathan Colvin
jcolvin@ican.net

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