X-Message-Number: 3388 From: (Thomas Donaldson) Subject: CRYONICS: re #3273-#3277 Date: Wed, 2 Nov 1994 12:29:48 -0800 (PST) i Hi! Some comments: 1. Unfortunately Dr. Merkle did NOT show that information survival was assured. If a brain is disrupted by any treatment at all, it's true that the REMAINING information after disruption can be stored. But Merkle did not and has not addressed the issue of recovering the state of a brain before disruption. I am emphatically not saying that such recovery will prove impossible. I am pointing out that it has not been definitiively proved. The point about damage caused by a CT scan can also be seen in this context. Though I don't claim to have a proof, it seems LIKELY that similar recovery of information will be about as hard as recovering infor about the original state of a frozen brain. I note, however, despite all the talk in some segments of the community, no one has actually tried to preserve brains using ultra-high resolution CT scans, while preservation using cryobiology is in active use. 2. I believe it is a fallacy to believe that the information need only be preserved. Except in a few cases, people simply don't act that way. The aim of cryonics is not to make it possible for a small number of select people to be revived, but for MANY people to be revived. To make this happen, there must be an organization devoted to such preservation and revival IN BEING. And even present-day distinction will not guarantee revival without such and organization. Even present-day Nobel prize winners will someday be completely forgotten. It takes very little more than another revolution in physics to make Einstein only an insubstantial historical figure who added a coda to the now totally outmoded Newtonian theory. If an organization must survive, then the fact that it cares for its patients isn't such a big deal. 3. While I can't pretend to argue out the merits of molecular theories of aging, I will point out here that aging will probably have many different causes (even glycation was neglected in the email discussion). While it is not a complete explanation, to ME calorie restriction suggests that its lifespan increase comes by interference with growth and development, and that at various stages of this process, some repair processes are turned off. Perhaps if we dealt with those first, we might double or triple our lifespans --- until other processes then come into play. I will also say that the references given all look very interesting and posting that message was a service to all of us. It just doesn't deal with the whole story, that's all. Long long life, Thomas Donaldson Rate This Message: http://www.cryonet.org/cgi-bin/rate.cgi?msg=3388