X-Message-Number: 20871 Date: Tue, 14 Jan 2003 21:19:41 -0500 From: Francois <> Subject: Information in the Universe All the discussions about quantum mechanics (which I find quite interesting) have brought a question to my mind. Maybe someone can shed some light on it. I have read about a speculation in physics that once information is created, it can never be destroyed. It is always, in principle, possible to recover any information, however scambled it may have become. I understand of course that possible "in principle" does not always translate to possible "in practice". Still, it could mean that permanent death is ABSOLUTELY impossible in our universe. A sufficiently advanced technology would always be able to recover all the information defining us as individuals and use it to perfectly recreate those individuals, even after an arbitrarly long time. It would also make cryonics a moot point. Wait long enough and you will be revived, whatever happenned to your body after your death. Just how firmly is that speculation about information established in modern physics, and does it state that information recovery is always possible in principle only, or in practice also? Btw, my take on copies vs originals is this: a perfect copy is not a copy. It IS the original. So if you have two objects which are perfect copies of each other, then you don't have a copy and an original, you have two originals. Francois --------------------------------------------------------------------- No lifespan shorter than eternity is acceptable --------------------------------------------------------------------- Rate This Message: http://www.cryonet.org/cgi-bin/rate.cgi?msg=20871