X-Message-Number: 18046
Date: Thu, 29 Nov 2001 12:13:27 -0700
From: Mike Perry <>
Subject: Where the Duplicates Are

Thomas Donaldson, #18040:


>A short answer (relatively) to Mike Perry on duplicates: no, they aren't.
>
>First, the issue just doesn't connect closely with cryonics in any case.
>Given that you come back, whether or not you come back with your brain
>made anew isn't going to matter either to you or anyone else. The
>important point is that you came back.
>...

The problem here, as articulated at some length by Dave Pizer in his 
posting #18041, is *do* you in fact come back if your brain is made anew, 
that is, copied rather than restored using original material? Or are you, 
despite appearances to the contrary, just dead and gone, perhaps forever? 
Now, to me there is no problem because I happen to feel that, more or less, 
the pattern is the person, and being reinstantiated in a new piece of 
matter is no big deal--or shouldn't be. *But*, not everybody feels that 
way. (Dave Pizer himself is one of those in this second camp, by 
indications, and he is far from alone.) The issue, then, is far from 
settled among the cryonics community. At least until it is, the duplicates 
problem remains a highly relevant one.

Best forever,
Mike Perry

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