X-Message-Number: 17452
Date: Tue, 4 Sep 2001 09:45:34 -0400
From: Thomas Donaldson <>
Subject: re: memories & their importance to us

Hi everyone!

Here I am again, talking about survival of our self. While I am glad
that Scott Badger has realized how important that issue is, I remain
surprized that he does not look at PERIASTRON, which has spent years
now talking about what we know about survival of our selves.

No, I may not mention that question explicitly, but it remains the
central question of the newsletter. Why not explicitly? Because if
I did so it might get a bit boring and repetitive. But just how our
different kinds of memories work plays a BIG role in whether and
how we survive. No, I decided some time ago that if we could actually
survive with no memory of our previous life at all, then it's not 
even clear that we have survived. What has happened in clinical
cases is that someone loses all their explicit memories but keep
memories of facts (including their own name) and such things as
the ability to ride a bike (which denigrates such memories a bit ...
they include such things as the ability to do calculus, too). That
means that they haven't lost EVERYTHING. (It's interested and
important that in no case have neuroscientists found someone who
lost ALL previous memories).

Not only is memory important for our survival, but the current
neuroscience theory of memory would suggest that cryonic suspension
which destroyed lots of connections would also destroy our memoris
ie. our memories come from the detailed connectivity of our brain.
This means that ways to RECOVER connectivity become important, more
and more important as more and more is lost. I am definitely not
referring to memories we might write down for further use but 
to the much harder task of examining a damaged brain to find out
just how two neurons once had been connected. This approach does
have some hope because we don't work like electrical circuits at
all, with lots of synapses between 2 neurons and lots of chemical
activity surrounding each one. Even the destruction of all the
synapses does not mean that their operation might not be recovered
from study of remaining chemicals.

Do our memories come only from the detailed connectivity of our
brain? With all the work now going on, some evidence also exists
that this isn't even the whole story. We just might see a new theory
about how our memories work in the next 10 to 20 years. 

Nor does suspended animation change this issue. Yes, it may change it
for those fortunate enough to make use of it, but we can expect 
that not everyone, even in the future, will arrive at a cryonics
society in a condition which makes suspended animation (ie. use of
vitrification etc) a practical possibility... not to mention all
those suspended up until a very short time ago.

Just some points about how our different kinds of memories work,
and the importance of this issue for cryonics.

		Best wishes and long long life for all,

			Thomas Donaldson

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