X-Message-Number: 13310 From: Thomas Donaldson <> Subject: so just how much information does a suspension lose? Date: Sat, 26 Feb 100 23:53:38 +1100 (EST) Hi everyone! The problem with claiming that suspension works like a cipher or a code is simply that it may lose information. If it loses too much, the person suspended cannot be recovered. While I have stated repeatedly that electron micrographs do not come near to giving all the information which might be obtained from a suspended brain. Moreover, much other information may be inferred simply from the fact that the suspendee had a human brain, the issue of whether or not there will be ENOUGH information for revival remains open. Moreover, given that over the history of cryonics there have been many different attempts at suspension, it's quite possible that the answer to this question will vary with the particular treatments given a particular suspendee. Nobody will be able to make any kind of universal statement. Without further research devoted quite specifically to the question of just how we can recover information from the brains of suspendees treated, say, from 1995 to 2000, it's quite impossible to make any firm statements. I am optimistic, but that comes from my sense that electron micrographs tell only a small part of the story about a particular brain --- even if we could without destruction take such micrographs of every level of the whole brain. But there is a second issue here: our resources are presently relatively small, and the best use of them right now is to find ways to IMPROVE OUR PRESENT SUSPENSIONS. If we work at it, we may even make the issue of whether or not the needed information is preserved one which holds only for past suspensions, not present ones, for which we will KNOW it has been performed. It is after we find out how to save our own lives that it becomes appropriate to work on saving the lives of those who went before us. (Yes, if we had enough resources, we could work on both, but we may not even have enough resources to help OURSELVES). That is what I have to say on this issue. If extropians or anyone first works out how to successfully suspend the brains of those now living, then they can go on from their. Otherwise they are dealing only with a novel version of religion. Best and long long life to all, Thomas Donaldson Rate This Message: http://www.cryonet.org/cgi-bin/rate.cgi?msg=13310