From: Robert J. Bradbury (bradbury@aeiveos.com)
Date: Sun Oct 06 2002 - 11:28:56 MDT
On Sat, 5 Oct 2002, Lee Corbin wrote:
> For example,
> I dare say that if all my DNA ceased being transcribed
> into RNA at this very moment, I would have at least a
> few minutes before anything untoward occurred. My body's
> protein production and nerve firings would continue
> unabated. Therefore, what is truly *me* can be captured
> by a complete analysis of my body excluding my DNA.
Only from a short term state analysis perspective. I would
say "Robert Bradbury" is a collection of memories and a vector
into the future. If your DNA is currently required to
retain those memories and drive you into the future I
would suggest that you not discard it so easily.
> More particularly, merely the information recorded in
> my *brain* in terms of its memories and potential
> behaviors suffices to re-create me in principle.
Yes, at least I and many others on the list would agree
(I hope) that your neural interconnect map will reproduce
Lee Corbin. (Now, why we would ever want to do that
given the grief he has caused over the last couple of
months is beyond my imagination... but I digress... :-))
> Now it's true that I am not being threatened by a
> tiger at this moment,
We could only hope....
> but had one appeared thirty
> seconds ago I would have reacted in a way *determined*
> entirely, so I claim, by my present brain state.
Hmmm.... Can we set this up on a loop -- Lee Corbin's
brain constantly reacting to a threat posed by a tiger.
> By this time, the DNA is no longer *directly* participating
> in rendering me. An analogy: after the building is
> constructed, the blueprints are to some degree no longer
> important.
Ah Ha, but as the WTC investigations have shown having the blueprints
are essential to understanding why something comes apart (or how
it was put together). Don't we need the Lee Corbin blueprints to
explain how the construct produced by those blueprints can create
such a disruption in the force?
R.
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