X-Message-Number: 26677 Date: Fri, 22 Jul 2005 23:35:45 -0400 From: Thomas Donaldson <> Subject: CryoNet #26656 - #26660 For Bob Ettinger: This message is my answer to Bob Ettingers message #26656. In the literal sense you're quite right when you say that my duplicate isn't strictly identical in ALL respects to the person I was before. However if we insist on strict equality, we run into a problem with cryonic suspension itself. Even if your body and brain are suspended (rather than, as some say, some record of your brain) the person revived won't be identical to the person suspended. I (and you) I'm sure would want suspension to preserve whatever is essential to us. In this sense, an identical copy of me made (say) 1000 years in the future would if anything be more like myself than the results of cryonic suspension. (I must add here, as I've done repeatedly, that the real issue here is what is possible IN PRACTICE, and I doubt that 1000 years in the future we'll be ABLE to make an identical copy of anyone living today. No one living today, among other problems, has written down EVERYTHING about themselves --- not to mention that any such record will wear away. However since that question has arisen, I'd have to say that if if if etc then the duplicate would be ME). Best wishes and long long life for all, Thomas Donaldson Rate This Message: http://www.cryonet.org/cgi-bin/rate.cgi?msg=26677