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

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