X-Message-Number: 3889
From: Ralph Merkle <>
Subject: Re: A very troubling question
Date: Wed, 22 Feb 1995 20:12:23 PST



"Martin N. Nemko" <> wrote:
> 	I have taken quite a while to decide whether to sign up with a cryonics 
> organization.  I have arrived at a disturbing conclusion.
> 
> 	We know that mental illness can be caused by just a single
> defective gene or slight deficiency in just one of the thousands of
> chemicals in one of dozens of portions of the brain.  We also know that
> microscopic anomalies can cause a person great physical pain.  If such
> tiny anomalies can cause such drastic effects, imagine what will happen as
> the result of undergoing cryopreservation.  Therefore, it would seem that
> the following would obtain:
> 
> 	a. Upon revival, it is quite likely that the person would wake
> mentally disturbed and/or in great pain.
....other problems mentioned....


In general, we know that there exists one (or more) (functional, healthy,
non-damaged, etc) structures which are most consistent with the available
information (e.g., the frozen person).  This is the desired result of
restoration.  Clearly, if the results we obtain do not correspond to
a healthy person (without bizzarre mental states, pain, etc) then the
repair process is flawed and must be corrected.  Further, the use of
a flawed repair process will be rather strongly discouraged for various
reasons.  Given that we know the repair process is flawed, the simple
response is to keep the person in suspension until the repair process
is sufficiently improved that the probability of any significant error
is acceptable.  (Different people will view different probabilities of
error as acceptable, but I suspect the actual error rate that will be
tolerated will be quite small.  Given the choice of risking a patient's
life or sanity versus simply waiting an additional few years, I suspect
I know which choice will be made).

Thus, flawed methods of reviving someone will not be employed except for
initial experimental efforts.  I would expect that such experimental efforts
will be confined to animals or patients who (for one reason or another)
have volunteered for the procedure (possibly in exchange for a discount,
or for other reasons).  In any event, anyone who was revived and the
results were found to be both unacceptable and incurable would very likely
be frozen again.  I expect that the number of people who will be
subjected to unreliable methods will be small; extensive animal
experimentation, extensive investigation of small cortical regions,
and sophisticated computer simulations should all reduce the chance
of failures on real patients.

Thus, the question is not whether patients will be revived with horrible
problems: they won't, except possibly in a few experimental cases who will
either be cured or frozen again.  The question is whether sophisticated
repair by advanced medical technology based on a mature nanotechnology will
be feasible.

I would answer this question quite simply:  "Yes."  A somewhat longer
statement of this answer is available in "Molecular Repair of the Brain,"
at URL ftp://ftp.parc.xerox.com/pub/merkle/techFeas.html

If you're revived, you'll be healthy both physically and mentally.  The
only serious concern is the degree of information loss that might
occur, i.e., the degree of amnesia, etc.  For various reasons, I
think it likely that presently available suspension methods will
preserve long term memory and neuronal structure sufficiently well
that little personality-critical information will be lost.  Further
research in this regard is desirable.

In summary:  Scenarios that result in revival using sub-standard methods
that leave you in pain, with mental aberrations, or in poor health are
highly implausible.  I would urge you to sign up.

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