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
 

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