X-Message-Number: 19325 Date: Fri, 21 Jun 2002 09:03:05 -0400 From: Thomas Donaldson <> Subject: CryoNet #19316 - #19322 Hi everyone! First, for Charles Platt: let's have a fun discussion about by VCDs from underground operators. Maybe we'll even be able to call one another names! :) For Dave Pizer: Since most of our brain activities involve more than one neuron, it's unlikely that consciousness would be different. As for memory and consciousness, I find it very hard to separate them when discussing this issue. It's not a matter of which is more important, but a matter of two series of events which are very closely linked, so much so that each would be damaged if it existed without the other. How would you, Dave Pizer, feel if you did not know your name, your wife, your past experiences with different businesses, events you were proud or ahamed of, all those memories. Sure, some 3rd party could tell you all these things, but they would essentially sound like the biography of somebody else. Not only that, but it is because of your memories that you can understand things that (say) dogs or cats cannot... so that when you encounter them you feel at home with them at once. Any dog, however, would become completely confused and therefore either give up or feel unhappy. Every time in which you are conscious, that consciousness does not occur without many memories. Some may be unconscious memories that make you feel at home with where and when you are; some will be quite conscious memories. "Oh, this looks just like the pattern I saw 2 years ago in my wife's old dress! The one she threw away..." Sure, if you were revived with total loss of memories, then eventually you will acquire new ones. Would such a person really be YOU? You would not even have a memory of your consciousness CONTINUING from the former Dave Pizer. We could have revived someone grown as a clone, and told them they were DAVE PIZER, and even told them about him. Not only would you feel the same way if this happened as if you really were Dave Pizer with all his memories lost, but you'd have no way (other than detective investigation!) to tell the difference yourself. As for why I look so much at both memory and consciousness, with emphasis on memory, is that memory is the element of this pairing that now looks most easily destroyed, and I look for ways to recover it. I would bet that we will come to a biological understanding of consciousness before we completely understand memory, too... And to recover both fully we must recover each one. Best wishes and long long life to all, Thomas Donaldson Rate This Message: http://www.cryonet.org/cgi-bin/rate.cgi?msg=19325