X-Message-Number: 13310
From: Thomas Donaldson <>
Subject: so just how much information does a suspension lose?
Date: Sat, 26 Feb 100 23:53:38 +1100 (EST)

Hi everyone!

The problem with claiming that suspension works like a cipher or a code is
simply that it may lose information. If it loses too much, the person 
suspended cannot be recovered. 

While I have stated repeatedly that electron micrographs do not come
near to giving all the information which might be obtained from a
suspended brain. Moreover, much other information may be inferred simply
from the fact that the suspendee had a human brain, the issue of whether
or not there will be ENOUGH information for revival remains open.
Moreover, given that over the history of cryonics there have been many
different attempts at suspension, it's quite possible that the answer to
this question will vary with the particular treatments given a particular
suspendee. Nobody will be able to make any kind of universal statement.

Without further research devoted quite specifically to the question of
just how we can recover information from the brains of suspendees treated,
say, from 1995 to 2000, it's quite impossible to make any firm statements.
I am optimistic, but that comes from my sense that electron micrographs
tell only a small part of the story about a particular brain --- even if
we could without destruction take such micrographs of every level of the
whole brain. 

But there is a second issue here: our resources are presently
relatively small, and the best use of them right now is to find ways to 
IMPROVE OUR PRESENT SUSPENSIONS. If we work at it, we may even make the
issue of whether or not the needed information is preserved one which 
holds only for past suspensions, not present ones, for which we will KNOW
it has been performed. It is after we find out how to save our own lives
that it becomes appropriate to work on saving the lives of those who went
before us. (Yes, if we had enough resources, we could work on both, but
we may not even have enough resources to help OURSELVES). 

That is what I have to say on this issue. If extropians or anyone first
works out how to successfully suspend the brains of those now living, then
they can go on from their. Otherwise they are dealing only with a novel
version of religion.

			Best and long long life to all,

				Thomas Donaldson

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