X-Message-Number: 4644
From:  (Thomas Donaldson)
Subject: Re: CryoNet #4634 - #4641
Date: Tue, 18 Jul 1995 10:58:49 -0700 (PDT)

Hi again!

Re: Dr. Merkle's posting #4640 which claims to answer mine

I shall try to be brief because this entire discussion, as I explained in my
last posting, has grown close to irrelevant due to experiments done by 
Biopreservation.

In any case, I would draw both Merkle's attention, and that of others, to my
subsequent posting in which I HAD accessed his WWW site. What I found there
once more did not impress me, nor did it satisfy my criticism of his argument.

(Since I don't have 2 computers to access the net, I decided to make one 
postingthen go immediately to WWW to examine Dr. Merkle's posting, then to make 
one
more commenting on what I found there).

He does point out that Dr. Hogg's ideas also included simple computations by
which, given a problem, we could work out whether in lay in the "bad" region
(many possible solutions) or the "good" one --- only one solution. All that is
fine and incontrovertible. But just where does Dr. Merkle do these "simple 
computations"? They are, as I've pointed out before, the SECOND clause of his
syllogism, which once more is missing.

I do not believe that faulty arguments help cryonics at all. Especially if we
claim to be rational rather than (basically) another religious cult.

As for Dr. Merkle's response to my statement about his interest in cryonic 
technology, I will say that I was referring to his (apparent) interest in work
done NOW, not in general. By omitting that clause he not only distorts what I
said but leaves open the question of his own interest in cryonic research done 
NOW. I was not debating, I was trying to state the truth as I saw it. The irony

comes when we think that we may not NOW have enough information to do Dr. 
Hogg'scalculations, but that with much less research than would be needed to 
actually
revive a brain we might soon come to have that information. 

And even though every published writing by Dr. Merkle leads to a conclusion 
that he does not believe CURRENT research is needed, I may well still be wrong.
If so I hope that he will beat the drums for more cryonics research, and if he
can afford it, even contribute to that goal.

			Best and long long life,

				Thomas Donaldson


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