[MURG] Re: MURG digest, Vol 1 #151 - 2 msgs

[cat13 at illrepute.org]

"king-yin yan" <y.k.y at lycos.com> writes:

>  cat13 wrote:
> >> YET another problem with the worm project is that it does not
> >> pay financially. It's the kind of basic research that's best
> >> conducted by academia (public funding). Are you really content
> >> with no pay? =)
> >
> >I am, if it advances MU.  If I had money, I would invest it in MU research.
> >In fact, I'm better at making money than I am at science, so I hope to be
> >able to do just that.
> 
> That's good. So last time we're talking about a coordination project.
> I think it's an excellant idea. After we have made clear the objectives
> then we can start bridging the gaps, if there're any.
> 
> One problem we need to address is that MU is not the only life
> extension approach. There's also neurotransplantation complemented
> with stem-cell research, which means replacing neurons continually.
> I don't know the prospects of this approach but it needs consideration.

Gah.  It seems like this would be more difficult than MU; how do you
get the neurons in there?

> The "replacement" procedure that we've been talking about is likely
> to be very complicated. So I start to question whether MU is really
> that much superior to biological cell replacement.

It is for me, because there are other problems with the organic substrate
of the brain in addition to cells dying.  The first example wherein MU is
superior to biological cell replacement that comes to my mind is backups.
The next is modification.

> My second point is about future prediction. Basically I think the next
> big thing (in the short term) will be AI (or whatever they'll call it).

One common complaint about "AI" is no one seems to know what it is (not
even AI developers).  What definition do you have in mind?
Also, AI pioneer Marvin Minsky disagrees about its being the next big
thing:
http://www.wired.com/news/technology/0,1282,58714,00.html
I'm not saying the idea is dead, just that it's in debate.

> 1) AI will allow more people in the population to be computer
> users;

How?

> 2) AI will significantly increase the thirst for computational
> power;

This is a little easier to see, but I think I might just be guessing
at what you have in mind here.  How do you see this as happening?

> When computer
> power becomes sufficient, uploading will be akin to merging with
> an AI.

I will allow that uploading might enable merging with an AI, but I don't
yet understand how or why uploading would be like merging with anything.