X-Message-Number: 14148
Date: Sun, 23 Jul 2000 10:21:58 -0400
From: Thomas Donaldson <>
Subject: comments and praise

Some comments on time, self, etc:

1. The piece by Brent Thomas is very good and may provide additional ideas

   to the work by 21st Century Medicine on nonbiological substances which
   help vitrification.

2. To Bob Ettinger, I'd point out that your discussion of saving various
   memories in the sense its advocates now mean (ie. we make films or
   write them down) has lots of gaps, not least of which is whether and
   how such memories can be read into our brain in any other sense than
   when we sit down and watch the film and/or read the writing. It's just
   such difficulties which cause me to raise that question.

   Someday we may well be able to read off our brain and store our memories
   in some other form. Reloading memories in THAT form is quite different
   from what is now being proposed. The difference is essential.

   I would say the same about the various treatments attempted on those
   with diseases which cause loss of memory.

3. Telomerase may not be the automatic rescue that its original proponents
   suggested. A letter in the 15 June issue of NATURE describes infecting
   human mammary cells with the section of telomerase which increases the
   telomere regions at the end of chromosomes. Unfortunately it also seems
   to activate an oncogene, c-myc.

   No, I don't mean here that telomerase is useless, and we should forget
   about it. Not at all. But making ourselves immortal is very unlikely 
   to be done by modifying only one small part of our metabolism.

			Best and long long life to all,

				Thomas Donaldson

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