62 replies to this topic

[johnuk]

The only way a brain could ever be "downloaded" is by in-situ molecular-level analysis using advanced nanotech devices.  Destructive analysis (serial sectioning and staining) might permit a lower technology to be used to readout limited aspects of brain information.  External scanning is and always has been completely off the table.

---BrianW

I don't know about that, I think the brain only really cares about the electrical signals being sent down the axons etc, it just so happens that those signals usually correspond to a certain ionic content at the nodes / synapses. Electrical stimulation of an axon produces the same result in the brain as it would if the axon were stimulated by a 'real world' stimulus.

I agree that simply scanning a mind is highly unlikely to be an option. Although, I'm not totally sure that this 'memory cloning' method would be as bad as it at first seems. I've been writing a paper, I really need to get finished, that discusses the question of what actually happens to our consciousness when we are classed as 'unconscious', when we're asleep for example. It raises what I think is an interesting question. What happens if the person who wakes up is just a 'memory clone' of the original consciousness that only believes it's self to be the original? If this was true, a 'memory clone' produced by scanning the brain tissue would be no more a death sentence than going to sleep; when you wake up, how is it that you can be sure you're the consciousness that went to sleep and not just someone with his memories?

It's also worth considering this with regards to perfect atomic replication of an individual; i.e. if continuity of experience is lost at any point, can you still be sure the resulting consciousness is the original? You also need to be sure that the experience is continuous, not just that it appears so.

If my latter statement is true, that going to sleep 'ends' one consciousness and another emerges on waking with the memories of the last, transferring into another form that doesn't require sleep would eliminate that problem.

bgwowk and homosapiens, you may wish to read the post I just made about the feasibility of MEG scanning a consciousness.

[bgwowk]

My post was a response to your post about the feasibility of scanning brains with MEG. It cannot be done, period. The only way to scan a brain is to "get in there" and analyze things at a very fine scale, probably right down to the molecular level in critical areas like synapses.

More seriously, your basic paradigm of believing brains can be scanned merely by monitoring activity is flawed. Just as the majority of the tens of thousands of files on my hardrive are rarely, if ever, brought into RAM or the CPU, most of who we are is not expressed in electrical brain activity over any brief span of time.

---BrianW

[johnuk]

My post was a response to your post about the feasibility of scanning brains with MEG.  It cannot be done, period.  The only way to scan a brain is to "get in there" and analyze things at a very fine scale, probably right down to the molecular level in critical areas like synapses.

More seriously, your basic paradigm of believing brains can be scanned merely by monitoring activity is flawed.  Just as the majority of the tens of thousands of files on my hardrive are rarely, if ever, brought into RAM or the CPU, most of who we are is not expressed in electrical brain activity over any brief span of time.

---BrianW

I know you've replied to both threads so compacted an answer into the MEG thread, as this is a scanning type discussion. Zip to ----------------> MEG scanning out of the running?