X-Message-Number: 25130
Date: Mon, 22 Nov 2004 08:23:41 -0500
From: Thomas Donaldson <>
Subject: CryoNet #25121 - #25129

For Yvan Bozzonetti:

You're being a bit unfair to RBR, even though I'd agree he's mistaken
on other points. The problem with reviving someone who has decayed 
into a pulp comes from the fact that all this someone's brain, once
complex with many kinds of molecules, now has a much more limited
number of molecules. And within quantum mechanice we can't label 
atomic particles (electrons, neutrons, protons) so that there's no
way to recover the former molecules, much less their former locations
with respect to one another.

So things do look grim for someone who's decayed for a week. I'll 
point out, though, that there's still a fuzzy area. Recently on 
Cryonet I pointed out some scientific work on neurons which suggests
that someday we might be able to revive brains after 3 full hours
at room temperature.

As for Uploading I pointed out megatons of practical problems in 
actually doing so. The simplest such problem is that we don't work
at all like present computers. Moreover even to make a computer
(or probably very many computers) which together imitate a human
brain raises lots of design problems, forgetting for a moment the
philosophical ones: put very briefly, our biological hardware 
doesn't act like computer hardware, either. Uploading may someday
become possible, but if you choose to base your life on that 
possibility, expect your demise before it comes. And I mean this
even considering nanotechnology (or perhaps we should say biochemistry)
and any other "modern" scientific wonder you might latch upon.

             Best wishes and long long life to all,

                 Thomas Donaldson

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