X-Message-Number: 13344 Date: Thu, 2 Mar 2000 07:29:56 -0500 From: Thomas Donaldson <> Subject: CryoNet #13328 - #13337 Hi everyone! I still can't do much, but I can get Cryonet and give some answers. And so here are a few comments: JJ Hughes, in his message, describes a primitive version of what Saul Kent and the LIFE EXTENSION people have been extensively funding. Kent and Faloon have even produced a set of tapes, which may interest Hughes a lot. One of the main scientists advocating vitrification rather than freezing, and who has done a good deal of work already in that line, is working with Saul and Bill Faloon to develop and promote that technology. He's also a cryonicist and he helps with projects looking at brain vitrification. The computing issue in using nanotechnology to repair our brain (or anything else) is quite meaningless. Given that our brain has many nerve connections, some quite large and hardly nano-, NO repair can really work without first getting the state of the entire brain. Yes, that state can be gotten by many different nanodevices (among other ways), which spread through the brain and report on the results in one small region. Then they leave the brain and their results are read off into a computer, separately. This computer (within wide limits, its size doesn't matter) would then work out the best guess for how everything was formerly connected together. After that a separate set of devices goes through the brain reconnecting everything according to the plan found. Of course, if the freezing/vitrification itself causes little damage, no special technology would be needed for repair. Those who denigrate such work, or even fail to realize just what it means for us, are hardly helping their own survival. Would you rather be suspended by a technology which is KNOWN to work, or by another technology which just might work but requires lots more technology to repair the damage it has caused? Incidentally, just as Ettinger has suggested, any computer which tries working out your brain connections from the result of a poor freezing can use virtually any available information to do so. That information need not bear on anyone elses brain, either. The problem resembles detective work much more than it resembles science. Finally, there is a problem with using technology which applies to our gut as a means to repair brains. Brains have a system called the "blood brain barrier" and their own special repair methods. No, I'm not saying that it is impossible, only that it is unlikely. Finally, I note that many recent Cryonet postings deal with science or technology which may apply to us. That's good, and once in a while someone comes up with something I haven't heard of. That's even better. I will point out, though, that I have been publishing a science newsletter aimed specifically at questions important for cryonics, and that's why many of these postings look awfully familiar to me. And if you want to learn more about scientific developments relevant to cryonics, you're welcome to subscribe. Just send me a message () and I'll tell you how to get a few sample issues or even subscribe for a year. Best and long long life to all, Thomas Donaldson Rate This Message: http://www.cryonet.org/cgi-bin/rate.cgi?msg=13344