Not all of what makes you you is encoded in the physical state of the brain (or whatever you would have preserved).
This is probably true, isn’t it? Most of what makes you, you, is in your brain, but another large part of it is mediated by hormones going to and from the rest of your body… I think. Yet most LWers who are into cryo go the ‘neuro’ route. Is there some reason why this consideration is not nearly as big a deal as I think? Is the idea that making a ‘spare’ human body is cheap?
(2) I’m not sure whether I should generalize to much of LW, but when people talk about extracting information from the brain, the plan is not repair, but to make a new brain, whether physical or in simulation. Making a new body is very cheap compared to this.
(1) Simulating hormones is important, but is there any information there to preserve? If the brain controls hormones, then there is no information outside the brain. Of course, it doesn’t control them directly, but mediated by glands that probably have different responsiveness in different people; certainly in people with glandular tumors. But there are just a few parameters to determine, basically average levels for that person. Testing different levels for a person would be like giving them external hormones. This changes people’s personalities, but only temporarily. Thus it does not appear that much long-term information is stored in hormone levels. In principle the glands could do lots of information processing, but I don’t think that there’s any reason to believe that. However, the spinal column is made of nerves, which we do know are all about information processing, so it is likely that some information is stored there.
This is probably true, isn’t it? Most of what makes you, you, is in your brain, but another large part of it is mediated by hormones going to and from the rest of your body… I think. Yet most LWers who are into cryo go the ‘neuro’ route. Is there some reason why this consideration is not nearly as big a deal as I think? Is the idea that making a ‘spare’ human body is cheap?
(2) I’m not sure whether I should generalize to much of LW, but when people talk about extracting information from the brain, the plan is not repair, but to make a new brain, whether physical or in simulation. Making a new body is very cheap compared to this.
(1) Simulating hormones is important, but is there any information there to preserve? If the brain controls hormones, then there is no information outside the brain. Of course, it doesn’t control them directly, but mediated by glands that probably have different responsiveness in different people; certainly in people with glandular tumors. But there are just a few parameters to determine, basically average levels for that person. Testing different levels for a person would be like giving them external hormones. This changes people’s personalities, but only temporarily. Thus it does not appear that much long-term information is stored in hormone levels. In principle the glands could do lots of information processing, but I don’t think that there’s any reason to believe that. However, the spinal column is made of nerves, which we do know are all about information processing, so it is likely that some information is stored there.
I see your point, thanks!
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hypothalamus