2008/11/5 Richard Loosemore <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>: > At the end of the > day, if you end up with some problems in the code because you transcribed it > wrong, how would you even begin to debug it?
Brains and digital computers are very different kinds of machinery. If I were to copy the circuits of a computer by scanning successive slices of it optically or with a laser there would indeed by mistakes, including registration errors due to imprecise reconstruction of the deformed material as it was sliced. These errors, if not corrected, would lead to catastrophic failure (or at least some quite severe malfunction) of my copy. Brains however are not nearly so sensitive to small errors, and in some cases fairly extensive damage can be sustained without causing the entire system to fail. I don't agree that WBE (or connectomics) is a "wild goose chase", and quite apart from the scenarios dreamed of by Moravec and Kurzweil I think it will lead to medical and prosthetics advances. Having chatted with some of the people doing photography of brain tissue I think we may actually be closer to being able to reconstruct detailed models than many people believe. ------------------------------------------- agi Archives: https://www.listbox.com/member/archive/303/=now RSS Feed: https://www.listbox.com/member/archive/rss/303/ Modify Your Subscription: https://www.listbox.com/member/?member_id=8660244&id_secret=117534816-b15a34 Powered by Listbox: http://www.listbox.com
