X-Message-Number: 14708 Date: Mon, 16 Oct 2000 18:47:54 -0700 From: Lee Corbin <> Subject: Re: Don't take me apart David Pizer, Message #14701, wrote >... seems to me to be begging the question. "All a self >is is memory, because all a self is is memory." It can >either be begging the question *OR* it can be a basic >foundational belief that is so basic, so true, there can >be no further justification. Which is it??? As stated, it's plainly incorrect. As many others have noted on Cryonet, memory, though vastly important and central, isn't sufficient: your personality also depends on other things---two probably being your attitudes and core beliefs. >On the other hand, just as many of us are not comfortable >with the patterns of information only definition of selfhood, But there was a time when many people weren't comfortable with a sun-centered solar system, even though the astronomical arguments had started to become clear! In itself, this discomfort is very familiar when learning about non-intuitive features of the universe. I think that we must base our beliefs, and more importantly our actions, on what we can rationally establish. >As far as cryonics reanimation scenarios where the brain is >taken apart atom by atom to take mesurments to make a new >device that is to replace the original brain, that is not a >way I understand that sounds like survival. It may not sound like survival, but it's not difficult to construct many scenarios in which this is exactly the conclusion you'd be logically forced to adopt. As one quick example, if aliens patiently explained to you that you were (aboard their craft, say) being disassembled and reassembled a thousand times per second, you could end up having an easier time understanding exactly how their machinery worked to accomplish this, than if, say, they tried to explain something really difficult, like quantum field theory or brain surgery. Lee Corbin Rate This Message: http://www.cryonet.org/cgi-bin/rate.cgi?msg=14708