X-Message-Number: 30817
Date: Fri, 13 Jun 2008 09:26:58 -0700 (PDT)
From: 2Arcturus <>
Subject: 'Why People Believe Weird Things' [

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>>>Would being restored to life with impaired memories, or no memories, still be
desirable? 

This seems like something cryonics clients should tell their cryonics service 
provider, because different people may think differently about it. Also, the 
question of whether or not one would want "implanted" memories.

>>>Until we have evidence, our judgment must remain, appropriately enough, 
suspended.'

I would agree, that we should suspend our judgment about whether or not cryonic 
suspension might be reversible. But that is a *different* issue than whether or 
not we should decide to be cryosuspended. There could be many good reasons why a
person might decide to begin a project that may or may not be successful 
eventually.


>>>Cryonics is not a science but a 'protoscience' based on plausible 
expectations about the future capabilities of science.

I wouldn't call cryonics any sort of science, or discipline of knowledge. 
Cryonicists are not privy to any sort of knowledge not possessed by the general 
scientific community, and they are not really advancing any knowledge in any 
area that does not already fall under some preexisting scientific discipline 
(such as cryobiology). 

I wouldn't even call it a unique technology, either, since the basic techniques 
of cooling and cryoprotection are well known for other purposes. 

What makes cryonics unique is the precise application of existing technology, in
combination with the unique intent based both on existing science and 
projections of future science and technology. This puts cryonics in an 
epistemological "black box" which is why scientists and the medical community 
are at best suspicious of it, and why their present judgment of it must be that 
it doesn't, now, work. Cf. the less decisive but in some ways analogous 
controversy over preserving umbilical cord blood 
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Umbilical_cord_blood).
Greg




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