Re: Uploading, info theory, and threads of consciousness
jamesr@best.com
Fri, 1 Nov 1996 14:17:39 +0000
> >Being able to "jack in" to cyberspace is only marginally useful if
> >you don't have the processing power to go with it. Sure, you may
> >have access to vast quantities of information, but if you are still
> >processing it or thinking about it at tissue speeds then you aren't
> >much better off.
>
> Why not come up with a bio/silicon brain which contains bits of both so as
> to speed up the whole. Both bio and silicon both have their pros so why not
> add both together and make one dual medium (dm) brain.
>
Possible, but you still have to consider Amdahl's law. The actual
speed increase will be far less than you expect as long as you still
have tissue components. Tissue, although massively parallel, has
some severe latency problems. It would represent a serious
bottleneck for any sequential processing.
-James Rogers
jamesr@best.com