X-Message-Number: 11819 From: Thomas Donaldson <> Subject: about how brains work, and why it's important Date: Wed, 26 May 1999 00:38:02 +1000 (EST) Hi everyone! I'm now going to do a terrible thing. I'm going to suggest that several people posting messages on Cryonet might try out my newsletter, PERIASTRON. For almost 10 years now, I have been reporting on what is known about how brains work. One reason for this is that until very recently very little of substance was happening in cryobiology, while it was also the "Decade of the Brain". And just how brains produce consciousness, memory, and all those other nice things (up to and including what we know about brains which suffer various kinds of damage). This information remains relevant to cryonics, since first of all it will be highly relevant to the many cases --- now ALWAYS the case --- in which someone has received a poor suspension and we must work out how to revive them. It's even relevant to efforts to successfully preserve brains: how else are we to work out that our efforts were successful with animal experiments other than by using what we know about how brains work. And if you want to claim that brains are basically the same as computers, it really helps to have some information about brains available so that you can argue that idea without handwaving. (It's not enough just to say that we have no other models anywhere close: that is no more than a statement of ignorance). Nor can anyone seriously expect to read themselves into some other (unspecified) form without a lot of familiarity with their current brain and how it works. And right now I'm in an odd position. Yes, 21ST CENTURY MEDICINE is coming up with significant advances in cryopreservation. Yet those advances look like they will remain unspecified for some time --- hardly something on which I can report. For that matter, unless we all get together the money to support specific research on cryopreservation of brains, we'll have to put up with current suspension methods for some time into the future --- and so work on brains remains important. And maybe if more cryonicists understood the present state of the art in neurobiology, they might see the merits of more research into brain preservation. I'd like that a lot, because I'm a cryonicist and prefer to live even if PERIASTRON must change its direction to some other subject relevant to cryonics. So if you want to discuss these issues, with particular relevance to all the various questions which have recently come up on Cryonet, I think it would help to learn the current state of the art in neurobiology. I will send anyone who asks a free commented bibliography; but even more than that, you just might find my own newsletter interesting in this regard. Just send me a short letter containing a check for $3.00 US currency, or even $3.00, and I'll send you an issue. And DON'T be afraid if it sometimes seems technical --- just what do you expect if you want to seriously talk about how brains work. So, rather than give my own answers to some of the points recently made on Cryonet, I'm just going to suggest means to learn more so that you can argue them with more validity. After all, we know that after revival we'll probably have to learn a lot. So what's wrong with doing a little of that now? Best and long long life to all, Thomas Donaldson Rate This Message: http://www.cryonet.org/cgi-bin/rate.cgi?msg=11819