Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!sun-barr!newstop!sundc!seismo!dimacs.rutgers.edu!aramis.rutgers.edu!athos.rutgers.edu!nanotech From: dennis@cpac.washington.edu (Dennis Gentry) Newsgroups: sci.nanotech Subject: Re: Uploading Message-ID: Date: 10 Feb 91 04:47:40 GMT Sender: nanotech@athos.rutgers.edu Organization: /u1/cpac/dennis/.organization Lines: 20 Approved: nanotech@aramis.rutgers.edu In article cooley@protocol.fps.com writes: >When you "turn on" this machine, the initial state will not >even approximate that of the brain from which it was copied. >Is there any reason to believe that it will ever settle into >a stable self-consistent state, much less achieve conciousness, >or integrity of thought process? Yes. Besides the electroshock example (which I suspect messes with neuron connections, besides disrupting the instantaneous state), there is another one. When you "turn off" a brain with high doses of barbiturates, you can in some cases achive a flat EEG ("brain death"), but when the drugs wear off, the patient comes back. (Or is it a new, uploaded patient? How can we be sure? :-) Dennis P.S. Sorry if someone mentioned this already--I missed a few articles.