X-Message-Number: 18171 Date: Mon, 17 Dec 2001 06:44:25 -0500 From: Thomas Donaldson <> Subject: CryoNet #18161 - #18165 Hi everyone! After finishing the latest PERIASTRON I am back again to make a few comments on Cryonet. 1. For Carole Eklund: I cannot speak for other cryonicists, but I would say that the best way to describe the situation of a suspended patient is that they are not REALLY dead, and were never really dead. What has happened is that many, including doctors, have definitions of "death" which don't really deal with death itself but with the CURRENT problems we have in bringing someone back. The current definition of death officially used by physicians, in fact, has the deep problem that it changes every time we get some advance in reanimating people. That does not look to me like a very good definition, ESPECIALLY for cryonicists. I am happy to discuss this issue further if you wish. 2. More for Carole: yes, pigs do have the ability to think, and they do better on animal tests of intelligence than most animals. Neuroscientists are now actively studying how memory and consciousness work, and if you are brave in the 2 November 2001 issue of SCIENCE there are several review articles which will tell you a lot. Basically we can eliminate lots of hypotheses, but haven't yet come up with a fully adequate theory of how either memory or consciousness work. And if you are not quite so brave, and want a good popular work on the subject ... one which does not argue for a particular theory, but just tells of some experiments, then try Steven Rose, THE MAKING OF MEMORY. (There are lots of popular works by prominent scientists who push their own particular theory). So that's all for now. Best wishes and long long life for all, Thomas Donaldson Rate This Message: http://www.cryonet.org/cgi-bin/rate.cgi?msg=18171