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To: Bill Fischofer who wrote (1146)	4/1/1999 1:34:00 AM
From: Scott C. Lemon	Respond to of 5853

Hello Bill, > Kurzweil's fantasies are nothing new. This "functional replacement" > handwaving is as old as AI itself. To each his own ... a lot of things that couldn't be figured out in the "old days" have been conquered ... I believe that he lays out a reasonable progression ... > The fundamental problem is that our ignorance of brain function, > especially as it relates to higher cognitive processes, is as > profound as ever. The brain is not a digital entity--it is an > enormously complex analog entity for which we have only the most > rudimentary functional understanding. Yep ... heard it before. I'm not convinced ... I would argue/agree that it is our lack of understanding that prevents us from knowing exactly what is there ... we don't have enough understanding to say what the brain is or isn't. But it's much more comforting for the average human to believe that we are made of some real magical stuff ... > So enjoy the work for what it is: an entertaining piece of > speculative fiction. Speculative, I agree! Fiction? I always look at that as merely a matter of time ... ;-) Scott C. Lemon