From: Eliezer S. Yudkowsky (sentience@pobox.com)
Date: Mon Jul 07 2003 - 17:27:54 MDT
Rafal Smigrodzki wrote:
> Eliezer wrote:
>
>>One problem I have, though, is that it still looks to me like it
>>would be better to just chop off the head and drop it into a bucket
>>of liquid nitrogen as fast as possible.
>
> ### Probably a bad idea. The freezing damage (microstructural) is extensive,
> maybe reversible with some as yet not-invented technique, but quite possibly
> too severe after all. Vitrification, and the, recently proposed by Alcor,
> intermediate temerature storage at just below the glass transition phase,
> should greatly reduce the damage, even including the gross fractures.
on't tell me about "freezing damage". Tell me about information loss, in
the information-theoretical sense of that term. I don't care about
"fractures" or "damage" - tell me what happens to the configuration space.
> ### You are correct to look at the problem from the information theory point
> of view, but the specific application of your reasoning is IMO
> inappropriate - freezing does much more damage in terms of information loss
> (just a guess, prompted by looking at fresh-frozen brain sections)
How can you guess this by looking at slides? You can sever a neuron and
half and what matters is not that it has been torn in half, but whether
the jagged edges uniquely identify the other piece of the puzzle. This I
would expect them to do. Furthermore, one of the critical questions is
how much information is subtly stored in molecular properties that
correlate to pre-freezing conditions; how can you tell this by looking at
a slide?
But IANAB, so feel free to correct me.
>>If dendrites and axons retract into the cell body within half an hour
>>after the neuron has been starved of oxygen (!!!),
>
> ### This is not true.
Maybe I've got it wrong. What's the correct time?
-- Eliezer S. Yudkowsky http://singinst.org/ Research Fellow, Singularity Institute for Artificial Intelligence
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