"Tim Tyler"  wrote in message
news:cdm2fp$2qld$1{at}darwin.ediacara.org...
> Huck Turner  wrote or quoted:
> > Tim Tyler  wrote in message
news:...
> > > Huck Turner  wrote or quoted:
> > > > William Morse  wrote in
message news:...
> > > > > huckturner{at}hotmail.com (Huck Turner) wrote in

[snippage]
.....
> However in the long term it does seem likely that
technological
> information-processing networks are likely to grow faster
than
> the human brain can manage.  Despite our multi-billion
year head
> start, engineered intelligences seem destined to surpass
human
> ones in about every way you can imagine in a relatively
short
> space of time.
>
> That seems bound to create a significant selection
pressure
> for sucking the human brain out of its natural home
between
> our ears - and onto exogenous substrates.
>
> In order to compete effectively at the high end, means of
creating
> physically large biological brains would be needed.
>
> The cesarian section operation has lifted the main
develpmental limit on
> the size of the human skull at birth - it's now free to
explode upwards.
>
> However, scaling the human body upwards rapidly in order
to support
> large brains might present a few challenges.  In the short
term, it might
> be easiest to build large biological brains by liberating
brain tissue
> from the human skull completely - providing an artificial
body for it -
> and maintaing it in a "growth" mode of development for an
extended
> period.
>
> "Brains in vats" - in other words - though presumably the
"vat" would
> normally be attached to some sort of large mobile device
with an
> appropriate set of manipulators.
>
> I'm not sure that plans along these lines will be
successfully realised.
>
> More likely machine intelligence will rocket upwards, the
human brain
> won't change that much in the interim, and fairly soon
"wet" brains
> and biological bodies will be outflanked in practically
every area by
> their machine cousins - who will then be in a good
position to take
> most of the available jobs.
> -- 
> __________
>  |im |yler  http://timtyler.org/  tim{at}tt1lock.org  Remove
lock to reply.
>

Maintaining organic brains in a "growth mode" of development
will be very difficult--as you note, there are just too many
problems. I completely agree that biology will be completely
outflanked by our machine cousins, but the most efficient
way to link the two will be through using small brain
implants--supplemental chips on the micro scale...and later,
on the nano scale. Ultimately--if nano is truly
feasible--our bodies and brains should become, in
significant part, pure nano. What the definition of human in
this case will become very fuzzy, but I think the human core
of the combined organisms that result will still always
remain distinct and extent.        ...tonyC
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