X-Message-Number: 17084
Date: Tue, 24 Jul 2001 10:28:53 -0700 (PDT)
From: Scott Badger <>
Subject: Re: CryoNet #17067 - #17078

> Umm, George my friend, what soul? My "soul" has no
James Swayze wrote:

> fact. Or perhaps you are referring to the
> actual Greek terminology used in the bible that
> often gets misinterpreted as meaning spirit
> when in fact it means *body*, yes? If this is the
> case then I can agree that I have a *soul*

Interesting. Do you have a reference, James?

> because I have a *body* and within that body I have 
a brain complete with it's *material*
> connections that martial energy both electrical and
chemical around to and fro to produce my
> mind and the record of my experiences which
> constitute my personality...my identity. That
> identity, owing to it's unique experiences *is*
> uniquely mine and worth something to me.

The cryonicists' goal of preserving personal identity 
is a  point that has been eating at me lately.  It is,
of course, an extrapolation of our normal everyday
need to maintain and preserve a coherent sense of self
from one day into the next.  And I think most of us
think of our identities as comprised of two main
factors (1) personality [i.e. behavioral dispositions
derived from genetic and environmenal influences] and
(2) our memories [understanding that a significant
portion of those memories have been edited and altered
over time].

Since many of those on Cryonet also have transhumanist
aspirations, the following problem is unavoidable.

With respect to (wrt) personality:  let's use the
popular 5 factor theory of personalty for argument's
sake.  Use OCEAN as the acronym for the five basic
traits: 

(1) openness, 
(2) conscientiousness, 
(3) extraversion, 
(4) agreeableness, and 
(5) neuroticism

http://www.fmarion.edu/~personality/corr/big5/big5.htm

Understand that each factor is a continuum (e.g. very
extroverted to very introverted) and where you lie one
each of the five continuums describes your personality
pattern.

BUT in the future ...  as a  ">H" , I would not want
to be constrained by these kinds of predispositions.
Let's say I'm an introvert by circumstance. Becoming a
>H means transcending that predisposition if I find it
helpful to engage in extroverted kinds of behaviors. 
A >H should be able to select any number of actions
regardless of where they might fall on any of the five
factors.  

So, how does one describe the personality of a >H
since predispositioned behaviors have been eliminated?
 Instead only those behaviors which are most
reasonable and in the enlightened self-interest of the
>H will manifest.  The upshot of this is that there
will be much less variation in the behaviors of
different >H's than we currently see among ourselves.

Now some might argue that  transcending personality
does not significantly erode identity because it is
only part of the equation. They might say, "Who I am
is mostly about my memories".  OK, so what happens
when we are able to share memories like computers
share text files?  To keep from falling behind all the
those who are rapidly uploading all kinds of
experiences and memories from others, we will feel
compelled, I suspect, to keep up with the jones.  But
eventually, isn't it likely that we'll all have about
99% of the same memories?  So ... NOW who am I? ... 
and how do I differ from you?  It puts a new twist on
the notion of a future singularity ... one in which
there is really only a single mind distributed across
billions of separate bodies.  I guess there'd be a lot
fewer disagreements between individuals and
multiculturalism would be moot.

Only neo-luddites would hold on to their original
identities, but who knows ... maybe there'll be a
place for them to survive and/or thrive.

To the readers, have I missed an important aspect of
identity in this analysis (please don't say, "the
soul")?   8^D

Comments welcome.

Vita Perpetuem,

Scott Badger

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