Yeah, I should untangle these acronyms more often. Apologies to John. TS = Technological Singularity.
> Some recent discoveries makes me think that our digital substitution > level, if it exists, may be far lower than standard neuro-philosophers > may think. > > - The discovery of wave-like information processing by the glial cells > in the brain. We have about 1000 times more glial cells than neurons > in the brain. They move like amoeba, and communicate by producing > waves of chemical changes. They can provides neurotransmitter to > neurons. Chronic pain seems to be related to abnormal glial activity > along nerves. Wikipedia says there are roughly as many neurons as glial cells. But I'm no expert, I've been using this report as my main source for brain emulation projections: http://www.fhi.ox.ac.uk/__data/assets/pdf_file/0019/3853/brain-emulation-roadmap-report.pdf > - the discovery that plant produce special purpose proteins enhancing > the exploitation of quantum interference, and perhaps entanglement, > and this at high temperature in the photosynthesis process. This makes > me think that it is harder to dismiss the possibility that our level > of substitution is below the quantum level (meaning we may have > quantum brain, after all). Thus should please Hameroff, not Penrose. That would be good news. It might give humanity enough time to get its act together. I suspect the quantum brain is yet another anthropocentric invention, but as you said there could be other features of the brain that take a lot of computational effort to simulate. Meanwhile I have a few more items pointing to more control :). -The coming resource scarcities (food and water, for example) resulting from population growth, global warming and destruction of the environment will lead to more control, which is needed simply to prevent the whole system from falling apart. -If brain enhancement implants are available, they might make people more intelligent and rational. Right now mass media keeps the population in line in the West but there are too many holes in propaganda and I'd assume stronger methods of control are needed if people become superintelligent. Same applies to digital evolution. -Destructive technologies will continue to outpace defensive ones, resulting in more instability. -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Everything List" group. To post to this group, send email to everything-l...@googlegroups.com. To unsubscribe from this group, send email to everything-list+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/everything-list?hl=en.
