X-Message-Number: 5947 Date: Sat, 16 Mar 1996 16:37:01 -0800 From: (Dwight Jones) Subject: CRYONICS: Recipes and Blueprints References: <> >>If you would only believe your own analysis (that fixing an old human body is questionable at best) then you might concur that this quixotian question of cryonics might be better posed especially if directed to regeneration from DNA. (With all due respect to the members of this list).<< I'm not at all sure what you're trying to get at. Regeneration of your body from your DNA will not give you the same body, but do you really care if you have the same fingerprints? Total regeneration of your brain from only your DNA is another matter, and clearly would not include quite a bit of what makes you the individual you are. And we are NOT just talking about you lifetime memories here. Again, even leaving memories aside, your own personal and unique brain is one of those things which is its own blueprint, and the only copy that exists of that blueprint. That's why cryonicists are so anxious about saving it, don't you know. Steve Harris, M.D. What you might say is that cryonicists focus on your phenotype, whereas the Church of Man points to your genotype and says "There's your essence". This is not a metaphor like your cookies, it's a precise scientific description of this distinction. Surely you recognize that you can print-out a hundred individuals from a single genotype. They'd all be identical twins and would vary from one another in small degree from nuture- that's something we both understand. The central conundrum here is bringing one's self to the Zen realization that your genotype is your true family and if this concept is examined, you will eventually appreciate that it really couldn't be any other way. Genotypes are very well understood in biology, but they are not featured in Cryonics. Thus our two respective positions boil down to the value of memories, and it is our position that one simply has to understand that the preservation of the genotype is paramount, not particular print-outs of it. No person regenerated from DNA will question their fresh new life. And old man revived into less than edifying conditions (physically, even mentally) via cryonics might. I have discussed this previously with members of this list and apologize for updating the good doctor with this refresher course. :-) Dwight Jones Church of man Rate This Message: http://www.cryonet.org/cgi-bin/rate.cgi?msg=5947