At the moment I don't see these ideas as any more than wish-fulfillment fantasies. As far as I can tell we don't know enough about the working of the brain on that fine a scale to know even how to think about what strategies to follow. To assume before we know the questions that we will find practically usable answers strikes me as bizarrely overoptimistic. Same goes for all of these life-extension schemes and institutes, of course.
There is in both cases a wonderful tendency to assume that because something doesn't seem impossible given infinite resources and understanding, it will become plausible in time for it to be useful. It's all very Sixties and very Californian. And not in a good way.
Talk of "information", outside of any identifiable context, serves mainly in this case to divert attention from problems rather than to help understanding. Information still exists in my computer's RAM after I stick a screwdriver through the processor, but is anyone going to seriously try to get it out for me? And that, I should point out, is a trivial problem next to the one you're asking about.
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timeasmymeasure
no subject
Date: 2010-01-21 11:51 am (UTC)There is in both cases a wonderful tendency to assume that because something doesn't seem impossible given infinite resources and understanding, it will become plausible in time for it to be useful. It's all very Sixties and very Californian. And not in a good way.
Talk of "information", outside of any identifiable context, serves mainly in this case to divert attention from problems rather than to help understanding. Information still exists in my computer's RAM after I stick a screwdriver through the processor, but is anyone going to seriously try to get it out for me? And that, I should point out, is a trivial problem next to the one you're asking about.