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 Rate This Message: http://www.cryonet.org/cgi-bin/rate.cgi?msg=10250