X-Message-Number: 16147 Date: Sat, 28 Apr 2001 08:53:12 -0400 From: Thomas Donaldson <> Subject: CryoNet #16136 - #16143 Hi everyone! Basically the discussion of duplicates tells us virtually nothing of use now or ever. That it isn't of use now should be clear; however the basic problem of this discussion so far is that it does not really attempt to confront the problems of duplicating an INDIVIDUAL PERSON at all. We'll need to know a good deal more about how brains work to do that, probably more than we'd need to know if we merely wanted to create an intelligent machine. I've already raised one problem: that despite our feelings that we really did experience an event, often our memories of it are provably wrong ... they get affected by subsequent experience. So is there ANY way to get two people-duplicates to have the same memories? If you subscribe to PERIASTRON you'll note that the latest issue actually discusses other issues relevant to this duplication. Our ideas about how memory actually works may well change a great deal in the relatively near future. Just how they will end up remains unknown...it may turn out that the observations don't really affect the current basic theory of how human memory works, though I personally suspect that they will change it. (Our synapses may not be stable at all; and we clearly grow new neurons which would naturally become involved with our memories). And for Mike Perry: yes, seeing our relatives die doesn't feel good, even if they rejected cryonics. My stepfather (I never knew my father) apparently tried to contact me when he was dying, but other relatives (whom I still have not forgiven) stopped him. Even worse, I have a younger sister who died of neglected breast cancer, and once more refused cryonics (her husband did not like the idea at all). The funerals, if you can attend them, are really the worst part of all: you can't help but think of how it might have worked out otherwise. I may well have been primed to feel this way before I ever got involved with cryonics, but even so, my feelings about death and funerals are different enough that it's impossible for me to speak about such issues to anyone who isn't a cryonicist. Sure, I can speak in the abstract, but when it gets personal how do I explain myself to someone who hasn't caught on? Best wishes and long long life, Thomas Donaldson Rate This Message: http://www.cryonet.org/cgi-bin/rate.cgi?msg=16147