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

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