X-Message-Number: 2278
Date: Mon, 24 May 93 23:50:10 CDT
From: Brian Wowk <>
Subject: CRYONICS Reply to Art Quaife

Art Quaife:
 
> Even if this scenario proves possible, it hardly changes my point. 
> If you die at age 70, your current body has developed as an
> integrated system with your brain for all of those 70 years.  If
> you now discard that body, there is no way to make the newly grown
> body repeat those 70 years of experience.  The newly grown body
> will have the right genetics, but it will be missing 70 years of
> environmental conditioning.
 
        Agreed.  There is no question that this represents a serious 
loss.
 
 
> My position could be wrong, but it is NOT dishonest.  Furthermore,
> Brian has misrepresented my statement.   My statement was about
> possible shifts of personal identity, not about whether something
> is alive.
 
        More than anything, I may have misunderstood your statement.  
I interpreted your calling neurosuspension a "mistake" to mean that it 
was less likely to save life than a whole body suspension.  If you 
were instead making the point that neurosuspension involves discarding 
a very significant part of who we are, I agree.  Those of us who 
choose neurosuspension are prepared to make this sacrifice so that we 
might improve our chances of basic survival through the cryonic 
suspension/storage/revival process.  What I do not accept is the 
suggestion that neurosuspension might be implicitly fatal while whole 
body suspension is not.
 
 
> On the other hand, suppose whole-body suspension becomes perfected
> within our lifetimes, or at least is improved to the point where it
> is clearly the way to go.  People who have only planned and
> provided enough estate funding for head-only suspension may be flat
> out of luck if at age 70 they are told:  You need to raise another
> $100,000 to be properly frozen whole-body.
 
        Agreed.  I wholeheartedly advocate that young people who 
choose neurosuspension today arrange for sufficient funding to convert 
to whole body when the technology improves.  Having said that, it is 
also worth mentioning that many people are in suspension today instead 
of dead because a neurosuspension was all they could afford.  (I know 
CI offers inexpensive whole body suspensions, but this is academic if 
you live outside Detroit since they do not provide remote response.)
 
                                                --- Brian Wowk

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