X-Message-Number: 14214
Date: Mon, 31 Jul 2000 09:13:13 -0400
From: "Raphael T. Haftka" <>
Subject: memories versus self circuit

If I had to choose:

I admire Dave Pizer's absolute certainty on the matter (see quote below). I 
wish that I could be that sure of anything. However, I still insist that to 
me, memories are as important as that mysterious "self circuit."

If I had the choice, Dave, of having my memories installed in your brain 
(even without wiping off yours) versus having your memories installed in 
mine (wiping mine off), I would choose the former.

I certainly seek personal survival and I think that cryonics is at the 
moment the least speculative route to achieve that. However, I wish that 
you admit that the relative importance of retaining one's memories versus 
retaining some self-circuit or some hypothetical continual self awareness 
is mainly a matter of individual values.

At 05:00 AM 7/29/00 -0400, you wrote:
>We cryoncists are interested mainly in personal survival.  The point here
>is that in no way (zero) does the original person live on in anyone else's
>memory: nor in the words they wrote on paper being read by someone else,
>nor in the pictures they drew on canvas being seen by someone else (even
>though the words and pictures may cause emotional feeling in the someone
>else), nor in the memories they created and stored in their brains being
>read or seen or felt by someone else.  To survive you have to continue to
>be self-aware.

Raphael (Rafi) Haftka, Distinguished Professor          
University of Florida                                   phone:352-392-9595
Department of Aerospace Engineering,                    fax: -7303
Mechanics and Engineering 
Science                       http://www.aero.ufl.edu/~haftka
Gainesville, FL 32611

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