X-Message-Number: 14726
Date: Wed, 18 Oct 2000 12:49:33 -0400
From: "Raphael T. Haftka" <>
Subject: identity and the alchemist quest for gold

The long debate about identity appears to be a bit premature. Hundreds 
years ago, when people did not know much about chemistry and nuclear 
physics, many believed that they could make gold from other materials. We 
are probably at this stage with respect to the question of whether you can 
duplicate people, upload them into computers, or even have conscious 
intelligent computers.

The nice thing is that we don't need to know the answers to make 
intelligent decisions about cryonics. We would like to have a good chance 
of being revived even if it is revival in the old fashioned sense rather 
than copied into a clone or into another medium. We would like to preserve 
maximum information in terms of our brain structure in case old fashioned 
revival is not available and uploading is possible.

So can we move on to other subjects? As a spectator from the sidelines, my 
view is that we have exhausted what can be said with the meager amount of 
information. If you prefer to ignore my request, at least follow Thomas 
Donaldson's. I would not mind seeing informative reviews and summaries of 
books on the topic of consciousness and identity. These books mostly went 
through several iterations of careful editing, unlike many of the recent posts.

Rafi Haftka
..

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