X-Message-Number: 9210
From: Thomas Donaldson <>
Subject: Re: CryoNet #9203 - #9207
Date: Thu, 26 Feb 1998 09:37:56 -0800 (PST)

Hi everyone!

The notion of "God's Law" seems unlikely to work on the face of it. Without
going into lots of details, I will note that there is NO case in which 
the government simply allows some traditional organization to continue ---
not that cryonics or organizations raising money for cryonics can be seen
as traditional! But everything has to have its special papers, each with 
their special form. Even Indian tribes have to do this.

I am not arguing about what should be but what is. And I will go on from there
to say that if this is the kind of law the Hardy's are using for Prometheus, 
I think Paul should get another lawyer. Ideally, he should get a lawyer from
among those who pledged (rates should be lower). 

Some may argue that such arrangements should be permitted. While I am willing
to listen to them as an abstract point, I do not want my money or my hopes 
for research in cryonics to become part of an unrelated movement to change 
the rules by which the Federal and State governments operate. I did not 
give my money for that purpose.

And finally, about memory: at the risk of repeating myself, I do not see
how its correctness bears at all on whether it characterizes you. They are
separate questions. Here is a counterexample: when very young, kids can
see all kinds of things, and misinterpret them. Suppose we have someone
who believes he saw people from a flying saucer at the age of 5. This 
memory has stuck with him ever since, even though he now believes it to
be false. It's part of his memory of his childhood. It is part of who he
is ie. a memory which characterizes him, even though it is false and he
knows it is false. If he lost it (since after all it's only one memory)
he would have lost a bit of himself, and feel that. 

Ettinger's examples all seem to involve incorrect memories. I'm saying that
their correctness doesn't matter. It DOES matter if they have been (somehow)
implanted, but it matters because they've been implanted, not because they're
incorrect.

			Best and long long life,

				Thomas

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