[MURG] Future of MURG (re Joe)

[Yan King Yin]

From: "Joseph J. Strout" <joe at strout.net> 
>> My point is that the whole 
>>package of functionally equivalent neuroprosthesis would be MUCH 
>>more profitable than all other intermediate subgoals. 
> 
>I don't believe that any such thing is possible. So, to me, it's 
>like saying that if we had magic pixie dust, it would be way more 
>valuable than anything else. Perhaps true, but irrelevant. 
Maybe you can take a look at my page below, I have worked out a
design for the BCI (scroll all the way down) that can record
membrane potentials as well as chemical information. There are
some remaining problems so I can't say that it can be built for
sure. Also there's the problem that more memory will be lost
via this approach as compared with scanning. But I hope the
difference will not be so big.
http://www.geocities.com/softuploading/DNI.htm
The strange thing is that you believe functionally equivalent
WBE is possible, even though that is a HARDER problem than BCI.
Now I'm stuck because I can't proceed further unless I know for
sure what kind of info is in the brain. That is the biggest
problem that I think everyone must acknowledge first.
>This is not how science works. You are describing some alternate 
>universe, perhaps. In our universe, scientists can conduct basic 
>research based on government and foundation (e.g. Howard Huges 
>Medical Institute) grants. All you need is a good workable plan and 
>some credentials. And if your work is at all related to medicine or 
>neuroscience, there is a LOT of money available. This will become 
>even more true as the baby-boomer generation ages. 
The goal of a systematic study of synaptic plasticity is hardly
correlated with medical applications at all (I've made this
point before!). Therefore we need to establish some correlation
between basic research and future medical applications, such
as neuroprothesis, and NOT with, eg drugs that claim to enhance
memory etc because (I have explained this BEFORE) that sort of
applications are relatively trivial and also of dubious value,
because that path will have its own problems and will lead us
into ***unrelated*** research when time is at a premium.
>The trouble with the automated scanning is that, as Eugene pointed 
>out, it's more engineering than science. And that is harder to fund. 
>Not impossible -- developing new tools and techniques is considered 
>valid basic research, but it does tend to favor things that can be 
>developed in small steps. Automated scanning can be developed that 
>way; it will just take a bit of patience. 
You're talking about scanning, but I was talking about
neuroscience. I think it's perfectly reasonable to
correlate basic research with neuroprosthesis applications.
If we don't do that then progress in THAT direction will
be retarded.
Please don't argue excessively. What if I ask you what kind
of research are you doing right now that will help uploading?
Do we really need to keep arguing until all permutations of
ugliness surfaces??
>> The way this will work, we only need to 
>>convince researchers to invest in these tokens first, and then 
>>the professional investors will handle the rest when this thing 
>>grows. 
> 
>Professional investors are irrelevant. The sources of money are the 
>government and granting foundations. 
What I said is that researchers will accept the tokens first
and THEN professional investors will follow suit when the
acceptance of this approach grows. This can be done in small
steps, not necessarily microsteps.
YKY


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