X-Message-Number: 10591
Date: Wed, 14 Oct 1998 10:11:27 -0400
From: Thomas Donaldson <>
Subject: CryoNet #10580 - #10588

Hi guys!

I seem to have gotten myself into bad odor with some people by saying
this, but here I go again. NANOTECHNOLOGY ALONE IS NOT ENOUGH. We're
also going to have to understand much better how brains work. Why?
Because if we do so we will know what information to look for if 
we want to repair someone, versus all the extraneous information which
tells us nothing at all. And it could easily turn out (not that I
think this happens, as I remain a cryonicist) that the freezing 
process destroys ALL of our memory... not just in a superficial way,
but so that no process can work out what it was afterwards.

Paeans to nanotechnology do not help anything if they sit there
alone. Anyone who wants to propose repair by means of some form of
nanotechnology must also pay close attention to what happens in 
brains, especially due to cryopreservation but in other cases too.
Otherwise, to be figurative, they are standing on only one leg when
they really need two, and that one leg ends at an STM point: very
unstable, and bound to fall over into the mud.

And as a side issue, I will point out a few simple truths: our
memory apparently shows itself in the connectivity of our nervous
system. We operate like neural nets, though not like any neural
net computer scientists have yet studied closely (our brain grows
new connections as part of learning something). Second, the scale
of that connectivity is much larger than molecular. The ability
to repair any number of damaged molecules (not that molecular
damage seems to be a consequence of cryopreservation) tells us
ZERO about the ability to recover connectivity. Finally, large
numbers of our neurons apparently play no direct role in memory
storage (they may modulate it, recall it, work with it --- all
very important. But they aren't involved in storing it). 

And for Charles Platt: Yes, so far we have not found or made enzymes
to fix freezing damage. However it may interest you to know that 
an active biochemistry RIGHT NOW is engaged in devising and USING
enzymes which work well below freezing, in nonwater solvents... such
as ammonia. You should be able to find the references to this if
you look through the issues of PERIASTRON which I was sending you
in exchange for CRYOCARE REPORT.

Although I have no problem at all with nanotechnology, which in
some form will probably become involved in our repair (if we're 
frozen before any systems for vitrification are developed, at 
least), the abilities of ANY kind of nanotechnology simply are
NOT sufficient to show that repair will be possible. My problem
is with those who seem to think that nanotechnology IS sufficient.

And if anyone on Cryonet is really listening to this message, you
can write to me and I'll send you a good reading list on how 
brains work, together with some other material relating this to
cryonics. For that matter, you might even subscribe to PERIASTRON,
and slowly get it by osmosis, as it were.

			Best and long long life to all,

				Thomas Donaldson
				

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