X-Message-Number: 9195
Date:  Mon, 23 Feb 98 17:48:41 
From: Mike Perry <>
Subject: Memory and Identity

 (Rafi Haftka) wrote:
> 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.
[snip]
> 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?
> 
It's hard for me to imagine a notion of "survival" without some 
retention of information about a past self. It would not have to all 
be in the form of episodic memories, but to me that seems to be the 
basic form it would take. In other words, the person you once were 
lives on in the memories you have of what you did or experienced, and 
"you" survive. This way of thinking, for those
who accept it, can answer some tough 
questions about identity and survival, which seem to me 
intractable otherwise. On the other hand, if you don't have, on some 
gut level, a feeling that memories are important, I don't think 
you'll be convinced by arguments however fine-spun. I wouldn't call 
you "guilty" though from my point of view the person you were is 
apparently "dying" or, going back further, "long dead."

I wonder what your views are on cryonics and life extension, or just 
basic survival issues. If, say, 
a pleasant form of suicide were available, and you felt your debts to 
others were well paid up, and they wouldn't suffer unduly by your 
passing, would you go for it? On the other hand, suppose in the 
future you could have a relatively minor brain alteration that would 
make you both able to remember your past better and get some genuine 
enjoyment from it. Would you go for that? If you did, do you 
think that would replace your present, forgetful, disinterested self 
with a different individual, or would it simply enhance the person 
that is already there?

Mike Perry 

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