Re: Lilliputian Posthumians

From: John Clark (jonkc@worldnet.att.net)
Date: Thu Oct 22 1998 - 10:40:53 MDT


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Joe E. Dees <jdees0@students.uwf.edu> on October 21, 1998 Wrote:

>Each neuron has up to 40,000 connections with other neurons, and
>there are more than 30 billion (not million) of them in a human brain
>weighing approximately 3 1/2 pounds. As complex and miniaturized
>as it already is, and considering that the interaction of genetics and
>experience has endowed each brain with a unique (although similar)
>connection pattern, the difficulties involved in further shrinking them
>are daunting, to say the least.

Difficult yes, impossible no. Hans Moravec figures it would take 10^13
calculations per second to emulate a human brain. To build one of Drexler's
nano computers that could perform 10 ^13 calculations per second you'd
need about half an ounce of matter, mostly of carbon, and about 15 watts
of energy.

    John K Clark jonkc@att.net

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