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From: Drew Davis <davis@av8r.dwc.edu>
Subject: Re:  Can the brain be ...
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Date: Thu, 27 Apr 1995 02:48:57 GMT
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It seems like the first and most compelling argument against the 
possibility of reverse engineering the brain is that one needs complete 
understanding of how it works.  Yet this argument hasn't stopped others 
from successfully "reverse engineering" other human organs, e.g., the 
heart.  No one (that I'm aware of) has total knowledge of how the human 
heart works, but we have just enough knowledge to do some elementary, but 
functional, reverse engineering.  

A reasonable reply to the heart example is to say that the brain is 
vastly more complex than the heart.  But this is just a tweaking of the 
first argument:  The brain appears complex because we don't have a 
complete understanding of how it works.  Again, I would say that we don't 
need (or should expect) such total knowledge of the brain to begin 
reverse engineering it.  My approach is just to set philosophy aside for 
the time being and ask:  What is the deadline?  What degree of reverse 
engineering is required, and so forth.
