X-Message-Number: 9188
Date: Sun, 22 Feb 1998 12:08:30 -0400
From:  (Rafi Haftka)
Subject: Cryonics

memory and identity.

The link between memory and identity has interested me for some time, and
since this was recently discussed with respect to amnesia, I wanted to
bring up a related question.

I have never had much interest in past events and past people in my life.
Possibly because of that, I have very few memories of the past. For
example, my 85 year old mother can recall the name and background of each
of her first grade classmates, I cannot recall a single person I went to
first grade with.

I first became aware of this idiosyncracy when I was 20, and ran into a
fellow who shared a desk with me in grades 5-8, and was one of my best
friends then. I could not recall his name, and he was offended, and
insisted that I try to. He finally gave up and told me his name. However,
when I ran into him again two weeks later, and I still could not recall his
name he was really miffed. At least I remember his name now!

I can still remember several of my highschool friends, but I can hardly
remember more than a handful of events that happened to me in highschool.
Furthermore, I rarely think of my highschool years, or for that matter of
almost any year in my past.

I find it difficult to believe that if I live to, say 10,000 years, I will
spend any time recollecting events from my youth, or from the present. It
is possible that in the future advances in technology will allow me to
store huge amounts of memories and recall them at will. However, unless my
personality changes, I do not expect to take much advantage of such
advances.

Am I killing the person I was when I was young? Should I feel guilty about it?

Raphael (Rafi) T. Haftka
Department of Aerospace Engineering,
Mechanics and Engineering Science
University of Florida
http://www.aero.ufl.edu/~haftka/
Gainesville, FL 32611-6250
Tel: 352-392-9595
Fax:        -7303

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