X-Message-Number: 7317
Date:  Tue, 17 Dec 96 13:41:16 
From: Mike Perry <>
Subject: re: brain vs. other body parts

On December 16th, Sonny said:
>
>On December 15th, Olaf said:
>
>>I really miss the input of an endocrinologist in the cryonics
>>group.While I truly believe, that the brain is the prime component of
>>my 'self', I am convinced, that my glandular system is a close second
>>in determining my personality.  I fully support Paul's approach of
>>concentrating on cryopreservation of the brain, but after that the
>>endocrine system should be given top priority.
>
>I would like to add that If just the brain and other components of the
>endocrine system were to be preserved, then a person would still not
>be their self.  I say this for the reason that other organs in a body
>have an enormous effect on/in a person such as the demand for certain
>chemicals. In other words, not having one's own body (besides brain
>and endocrine system) would have an effect on personality (in my
>opinion).

In the future it should be possible to reconstruct a close copy of 
the body using the DNA information in the brain, assuming the latter 
is well-enough preserved to recover the memory and personality 
elements that would be critical to a reanimation. (If those elements 
are preserved, it seems a very good bet that the genome can 
also be recovered from DNA, which is highly redundant and survives 
for long periods even without freezing.) The copy would be as
"close," as a minimum, as an 
identical twin's. Further refinements, if desired, ought to be 
possible based on the recovered memories of what the original was 
like. Although there is some debate on the issue, I think it will be 
possible also to implement a "wiring diagram" so that the brain will 
sense and operate with this body just as before with the old body--it 
will seem the same in all respects (or may have desired improvements 
such as greater strength or coordination). The endocrine glands, etc.
should be reproducible and the 
emotions that "fit" what is remembered should reappear.

So the 
endocrine glands and the rest of the body do not seem essential to 
preserve for a reanimation, even though they may be very important 
for living one's life. I think there is confusion between the idea 
of *conservation* of identity and that of *expression* of identity. 
Conservation means you store an artifact (the frozen brain, say) from 
which the person can eventually be reconstructed and reanimated. 
Expresson refers to the process of living that this person will do 
afterward (or more generally, to the living of life, as a 
conscious individual). Expression may require various apparatus 
such as endocrine glands and other body parts, but 
these are not really essential if they can be reconstructed from 
other structural information. The brain alone should be adequate to 
reanimate the person.

All this, however, is not to speak against preserving other parts of 
the body, and in particular to develop reversible procedures for 
doing the same, which I think is a worthwhile goal. Reanimation from 
the brain alone will, no doubt, require a mature nanotechnology, and 
we'd like to do better than that (i.e. place less burden on future 
developments) if we can.

Mike Perry

http:\\www.alcor.org


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