X-Message-Number: 11318 From: Thomas Donaldson <> Subject: Regrets that I can't go to talk, and more for Dave Pizer Date: Thu, 25 Feb 1999 23:12:38 +1100 (EST) Hi everyone! It's a pity that I cannot attend the talk by Croughan at Xerox PARC. Biotech provides the very first kind of nanotechnology, and right now is far in advance of any other kind (in terms of what has actually been done). And for Dave Pizer: Yes, I know what Mike was suggesting, but doubt that such a resurrection will ever become possible. Yes, we can no doubt make replicas of various predecessors, human and other, but those replicas would not constitute resurrection. Lucy was not a human being. The problem is that the information needed for a true resurrection will have been lost. (This is a judgement based on my own estimate of what science will be capable of, even in the far future. I do not claim it is unshakably true, but will say that so far no evidence exists against it). However the talk on Cryonet did not consist solely of the possibility of resurrecting all humans (or all animals?) that have ever lived. Some posters suggested that we might not do so, even if we could, not because of technical barriers but because of they did not like the person who might be resurrected. That is the point of my postscript: given that someone has been suspended, it is dangerous to US to propose that he or she not be revived. That danger comes from the possibility that those who dislike me or you will use such arguments against our own resurrection... and maybe even succeed. I think the simple fact that someone has been suspended creates an obligation to work towards their resurrection, whether or not we "like" or "respect" them. Yes, that resurrection may also prove impossible, but we won't know that until we work on the problem for some time --- and no trivial amount of time, either. As someone who has already lost some family members (rather than them losing me, the expectation for a while) I know just how many cryonicists feel --- I've been in the same place. However if nothing else a true resurrection of them, from the fragments of information I remember of them, seems quite difficult (an understatement!). And I would not want just a similar being to be created from my memories: that would not be really a resurrection, but a kind of falsehood to give me the illusion that my family member has never died. I find it impossible to accept such a falsehood as the original. Best and long long life to all, Thomas Donaldson Rate This Message: http://www.cryonet.org/cgi-bin/rate.cgi?msg=11318