...(continued)...technological resurrection, neurophysiology

(You need to read the post after (above?) this one first. If you really want to)
Today's blog was mostly written some days ago, and
is already long enough. So you can stop reading now. But as I'm
trying to write about technology too, I'll carry on if there's anyone
still reading. Science fiction writers have told tales of how a human
soul could in the future be downloaded (uploaded) into some kind of
computer, possibly with a robotic body. Currently we are nowhere near
that level of expertise. But our own technological ingenuity has a
habit of surprising us. Is it possible that one day we will achieve
technological resurrection? It's quite a disturbing question for some
Christians. As though science will actually supplant faith at some
point. However, it is also possible that it's impossible! We humans
could well be a limiting case of complexity in this universe. That
is, we are the most complex objects we know of. And when we start to
wonder if the human brain could get any more complex there are
problems. It's possible to increase the amount of grey matter (an
elephant's brain is larger). But there is underlying white matter -
which is basically the additional wiring that connects all the grey
matter up. This is essential to the way a human brain works. And to
increase the grey matter, you need more and more white matter, but
exponentially so. The biological brain we have may not actually have
much capacity to get bigger and better.
That doesn't mean there isn't a different technology that could effect
the same level of complexity. We don't know. But I'm guessing not.
We are so far away from understanding how a human brain actually works
that we're unlikely to be able to produce a technological equivalent
anytime soon. Brains are all down to quantum effects in dendritic
spines or something. Quantum computing technology has only just made
it outside the laboratory this year, so don't set a date. Anyway,
that's enough amateur neurophysiology for one day. I should put links
and references in, but it's easier to write this stuff off the top of
my head. That's where my brain is. Sometimes.