X-Message-Number: 18178
Date: Tue, 18 Dec 2001 07:32:41 -0500
From: Thomas Donaldson <>
Subject: more for Ms Ekland

Again for Ms Eklund:

Actually your questions have the merit that we must think out how to
reply to questions from those not familiar with cryonics.

I and others have already pointed out that we want to revive YOU
and must therefore find a way to revive (or restore) your brain. This
can be complex, because the degree of damage can vary and will
probably always vary. If the very best suspended animation done not
by freezing but by vitrification, then the problem of restoring 
your brain will have been solved. On the other side, your brain
may have been damaged, and in the worst case messed up by autopsy.
I do not know if the worst cases will ever be revivable, but if
asked I can come up with some facts that suggest that at some
future time it might become possible. At least for those cryonic
societies with which I am familiar, YOU rather than the cryonic
society give the criteria beyond which you are to be thought
unrevivable. In practical terms, it turns out to be advantageous
to set those criteria very far out: who wants to be destroyed
only to learn that 3 centuries later they worked out how to
revive someone in exactly his/her condition?

The issue of what will happen to you ie. who will care for you
has its own complexities too. So far, after some initial failures,
societies have remained quite stable. However if something went
wrong with your original society, I believe others would try to
step in. So that you just might find yourself revived by a 
different society than the one that suspended you. I personally
would like to see some formal agreements here, but so far this
hasn't happened. Eventually it will.

		Best wishes and long long life to all,

			Thomas Donaldson

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