X-Message-Number: 18489 Date: Tue, 05 Feb 2002 08:36:15 -0500 From: "Raphael T. Haftka" <> Subject: memories and survival Robert Ettinger wrote: >Does Thomas think his infant self failed to survive? After all, he retains no >memories, or at least none he can bring to consciousness, from his first year >of life. Yet here he is, and if he looks at his baby pictures no doubt he >thinks of that as himself. This is putting the question to the wrong person. When I contemplate the person that may be revived after cryonics suspension the question is not whether he will think that we are the same person but whether I now think that we will be the same person. If that future person does not have any of my present memories, it is very difficult for me to think of him as being the same person. I remember watching the movie Heaven Can Wait, where Warren Beattie is returned to life from heaven but without any memories of his previous life. I felt at the time that this was a sham revival, and I still do think so today. What constitutes survival is a value judgement rather than an objective question, and I must fall in the group that does not consider survival without memories to be much better than being replaced by a biological clone. Rafi Haftka Tel: Home (352-466-4432 Work (352)-392-9595 Fax: (352)-392-7303 Rate This Message: http://www.cryonet.org/cgi-bin/rate.cgi?msg=18489