X-Message-Number: 17078 Date: Mon, 23 Jul 2001 22:23:49 -0700 From: Mike Perry <> Subject: Self Worth, Neti-Neti George Smith, #17060, says: ... >There is no need for justifying your existence nor assigning yourself some >kind of "worth". But if you have no worth, why bother with something like cryonics or trying to live forever? Even simple self-preservation can be called into question. And it does seem that a lot of people reject cryonics for the very reason that they consider themselves unworthy of "coming back." As one such person somewhat humorously stated it, "my brains aren't worth freezing." How do you answer an objection like that, without invoking some concept of the value or worth of the person in question? As for the "neti, neti" (not this, not that) doctrine, it can easily become self-contradictory, as in not-a and *not*-not-a (assuming you are going by Aristotelian logic) and I don't think this is sufficiently recognized by devotees. Perhaps the doctrine is intended to express some kind of fuzziness (which *could* be mathematically legitimate, though not necessarily), but if so, more attention needs to be given to precisely what. Mike Perry Rate This Message: http://www.cryonet.org/cgi-bin/rate.cgi?msg=17078