X-Message-Number: 10250
Date: Sun, 16 Aug 1998 10:06:20 -0400
From: Thomas Donaldson <>
Subject: CryoNet #10237 - #10248

To all concerned with Goedel:

How our brain works is fundamental to any statement about how we 
decide something is true or not. And we do not do so in any formal
system (except when we are doing mathematics). It's hardly difficult
to find people who use no formal system but seem to be getting on quite
well in the world. 

As for "reality", some here seem to make an assumption that such a
notion is concrete rather than metaphysical. We will not know that 
all creatures see the same underlying reality until we find that
creatures other than human beings do so. As for human beings, the
experiment is messed up by the fact that we ALL talk to one another
constantly, and hence our ideas about reality are not independent.

And for those not concerned with Goedel:

There is a strong connection with cryonics, if you listen a bit. You
see, there is one segment of opinion among cryonicists that we might
eventually be emulated by a computer. Computers work by means of 
manipulating symbols (if we exclude neural nets, which some may not
even see as computers). If ALL thinking consists of such manipulation,
then the claim of such cryonicists is proven. If it does not, then
the possibility that we cannot be emulated by any computer at least
becomes relevant and perhaps even important. Why computers? Because
at least to some they seem to provide a way to resurrect us even in
the worst cases.

			Best and long long life to all,

				Thomas Donaldson

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