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Mailing List Logs for ShadowRN

Message no. 1
From: Mike Elkins <MikeE@*********.COM>
Subject: Nerve impulse speed (was Re: Multiple (counter)attacks)
Date: Tue, 19 Nov 1996 10:20:37 -0500
Pete wrote

>The nercous system works on nervous impulses, or to be more exact, electrical
>impulses, theWired system works on electrical impulses, so they both get there
>as fast, the difference being is that the wires take control and don't require
>physical effort. The reaction time is the same, the physical speed isn't.

Although I have no opinions whatsoever on multiple attacks, this one I have to
chime in on.

Neural signals are electro-chemical signals, not electronic ones. They travel
much slower than electronic signals which are slightly slower than the speed of
light in a vacuum. A neuron firing sort of "snaps the whip" and a region of
different electrical charge ripples down the axon (long wire part of a neuron).
Replacing neurons with electrical signals would in fact speed up the travel of
signals (would this give you the effects of wired reflexes is a different matter).

Double-Domed Mike
Message no. 2
From: Pete <Pete@********.DEMON.CO.UK>
Subject: Re: Nerve impulse speed (was Re: Multiple (counter)attacks)
Date: Tue, 19 Nov 1996 16:29:08 +0000
In article <s29188d5.005@********.dragonsys.com>, Mike Elkins
<MikeE@*********.COM> writes

>Although I have no opinions whatsoever on multiple attacks, this one I have to
>chime in on.
>
>Neural signals are electro-chemical signals, not electronic ones.

OK, there's a difference, I stand corrected, although I made the mistake
of using a general analogy...

>They travel
>much slower than electronic signals which are slightly slower than the speed of
>light in a vacuum.

Electricity travels at two thirds that of light I think.

>A neuron firing sort of "snaps the whip" and a region of
>different electrical charge ripples down the axon (long wire part of a neuron).
>Replacing neurons with electrical signals would in fact speed up the travel of
>signals (would this give you the effects of wired reflexes is a different
>matter).
>
>Double-Domed Mike


OK, thanks DD, I have been corrected and admit my mistake. :)
Though wired..... hmm, that still relies initially on a electro-chemical
reaction to fire, so... Nah, I'm not going to get into it, I was wrong
the first time... :)


--
Pete Sims
Civilisation advances by extending the number of important operations which we
can perform without thinking about them.

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