X-Message-Number: 11024 Date: Sun, 03 Jan 1999 18:27:56 -0700 From: Mike Perry <> Subject: Importance of Identity Thomas Donaldson, #11011, writes about the issue of identity, >It may even remain important with full suspended animation, for one simple >reason: if we do not die from aging, then we may well die from accidents. >And those accidents may very easily occur in circumstances in which .... >you guessed it, you are not reachable "soon enough" for suspended >animation to assure your preservation. Yes, we'd live for much longer, but >then just how we felt about our (semi-)ultimate end will very likely >remain similar to how we feel now In addition to this, though, I see identity and survival issues being important even in a perfect world in which accidental destruction or loss of information or structure never occurs. For one thing, there is an additional "threat" which is simply, that life involves an ongoing process which could, conceivably, make you so "different" over time that "you" of an earlier time don't survive--someone else takes your place. This is a problem especially for some today (Arthur C. Clarke comes to mind) and a stumbling block in signing up for cryonics. There are other examples too of identity problems not involving information loss, that today hinder some from cryonics. One, that comes to me by rumor mill only, but I think worth repeating anyway, involves a certain, very prominent scientist who thought cryonics might work but refused it. Why? Because, in a future where everyone would presumably have options to greatly increase their own talents, he would no longer be "superman." Apparently, playing the role of god to lesser beings was so important to his sense of identity that, without it, he'd rather be dead and buried. (He now is.) I also found Bob Ettinger's comments, #11015, well put. Mike Perry Rate This Message: http://www.cryonet.org/cgi-bin/rate.cgi?msg=11024