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