X-Message-Number: 19913 Date: Mon, 26 Aug 2002 09:46:45 -0400 From: Thomas Donaldson <> Subject: CryoNet #19900 - #19908 More for Bob Ettinger: I say this with partial seriousness. Suppose that we find, on studying how minds work, that we can find the situations which maximize our total satisfaction by solving a polynomial equation. The differences may not change our total satisfaction, but may turn out to be quite profound in other ways. As for instance, choice of cryonics over choice of some other activity. If we use the image of polynomial equations, we notice one other issue: there are local maxima, perhaps many of them, and (if it has more than 1 variable) they may go off to +infinity in one direction and -infinity in another. It seems to me that you have not specified exactly enough just how we are to find a maximum... if there IS one rather than the equation just going to infinity in one or another direction. Best wishes and long long life for all, Thomas Donaldson Rate This Message: http://www.cryonet.org/cgi-bin/rate.cgi?msg=19913