On Tue, Dec 24, 2002 at 09:57:58AM -0800, Tim May wrote:
First, I sent this in error to the CP list...it was intended for another list. (My mailer has command completion and I am so used to typing "cy" in the To: box and having it expand to "cypherpunks@lne.com" that I sent it to CP by accident. As to why type list addresses rather than "Reply to All," this is to get the list in the To: and not the Cc: and not have misc. other lists or persons getting copied--as in this reply, where TD is initially in the To: and CP is in the Cc:, in OS X Mail.)
And what list would that be? I'd like to take a look at it. ...
On Tuesday, December 24, 2002, at 08:25 AM, Tyler Durden wrote:
Yes. I strongly suspect that "minds" are quantum mechanical.
Penrose also believes this, and has actually identified Aharanov-Bohm-like structures in certain simple organisms used to probe their immediate environment.
Max Tegmark fairly conclusively demonstrated that decoherence occurs far too rapidly in proteins and other biological structures for QM to be an actor. As for Stuart Hameroff's nanotubules idea, I've been a skeptic of this ever since meeting him at the A-LIFE Conference in 1987.
Last summer I read "the physics of consciousness". It was a pretty disappointing attempt to explain consciousness with QM, mixed with lots of emotional and relgious hand waving, nice background info though. Anyway, this is exactly why I want to do computational neuroscience. I also think that the turing machine is a sorely classical model, and that the brain is definitely not a turning machine, but something else, far more powerful. As for making a neuron, look into the research of henry abarbanel. I was in his lab the other day, and his students have actually made simple neurons that can be wired into the brain of a lobster to simulate removed neurons, creating the proper oscillation to generate the signals which allow the lobster to digest things. He mostly does research into the nonlines dynamic properties of neurons. I'm hoping to work in his lab next year. michael -- michael cardenas | lead software engineer, lindows.com hyperpoem.net | GNU/Linux software developer people.debian.org/~mbc | encrypted email preferred Listening to: Lamb - Cotton Wool "Sit Rest Work. Alone with yourself, Never weary. On the edge of the forest Live joyfully, Without desire." - The Buddha [demime 0.97c removed an attachment of type application/pgp-signature]