What about 1 foot? or 10? or 1 million?
Elliot: I meant more along the lines of keeping the synaptic distance but lengthening the dendrites.
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What if you expanded the avg. distance between your neurons by 1000 feet? Would you still be conscious?
September 8th, 2008 · 5 Comments
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5 responses so far ↓
1 Maurog II // Sep 8, 2008
I would be dead.
2 TEH TYME KITTEH =^..^= // Sep 8, 2008
propogation delay would suggest not. But that remains to be seen.
3 Leslie D // Sep 8, 2008
I imagine I would be dead.
4 Elliot // Sep 8, 2008
No.
"What about 1 foot? or 10? or 1 million?"
No, even one foot would be way too far. Even a millimetre would be way too far. For neurons to work (and, therefore, for consciousness to exist), neurotransmitters must be able to pass from one neuron to another across the synaptic cleft. The synaptic cleft is about 20nm wide. Making it millions of times wider would kill you, quite unsurprisingly.
Lengthening the dendrites might not stop the neuron from functioning. After all, there are neurons with axons more than a foot long in some parts of your body. But the practical aspects of increasing the volume of neurons so dramatically within the brain itself would surely be impossible.
5 ♫ Candy I Atheist ♫ // Sep 8, 2008
Prolly would look like your avatar. No thanks.
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