X-Message-Number: 26778 Date: Sun, 07 Aug 2005 14:43:06 -0400 From: Randolfe Wicker <> Subject: Re: Your body younger than you think. Content-type: text/plain; charset=iso-8859-1 Content-transfer-encoding: 7BIT The New York Times article explaining how virtually every part of our body regenerates itself during our lifetimes--with the exception of our brain--raises an interesting issue for cryonicists. If our brain cells really don't replace themselves and simply slowly deteriorate, it would be easy to imagine medicine enabling the physical body to live on while the mind slowly dies. While we might be able to generate new brain cells using stem cell therapies, would those new cells absorb the memories and the personality existing in our aging original cells? This raises those old questions about personal identity and "self". Since many of us see ourselves evolving and changing as we age over the decades, would a greatly expanded life-span mean that the "self/person" that we are today eventually simply evolve out of existence? Randolfe H. Wicker Founder, Clone Rights United Front www.clonerights.com Spokesperson, Reproductive Cloning Network, www.reproductivecloning.net Correspondent, , StemClone Digest, www.StemCloneDigest.com Advisor, The Immortality Institute, www.imminst.org 201-656-3280 (Mornings) Content-type: text/html; charset=iso-8859-1 [ AUTOMATICALLY SKIPPING HTML ENCODING! ] Rate This Message: http://www.cryonet.org/cgi-bin/rate.cgi?msg=26778