X-Message-Number: 2267
Date: Wed, 19 May 93 13:50:26 PDT
From: 
Subject: CRYONICS Re: Deanimation Procedure


> From:  (Thomas Donaldson)
[...]
> 2. It will take more than AI alone to recover the patient from a map of the

>    location of his/her molecules. We still need to understand a good deal more
>    about just what the state of a live person is, chemically. We don't yet
>    understand how memory works, nor IN DETAIL where it is stored. Therefore
>    no amount of AI can tell us how to put it back there. Since such storage
>    and even the detailed anatomy of the patient's nervous system will very
>    likely be unique to that patient, simple comparisons with others won't
>    help.
[...]

There's a fallacy in the above reasoning.  Thomas says that because we
don't yet understand how memory works we can never re-create it from a frozen
body.  That just doesn't follow.  If memories are contained in frozen bodies
then there's no reason why our current understanding of them should affect
our ability to re-create them later.  In fact I see no reason why we will
need to even understand them later.

Thomas goes on to describe the difficulty of understanding just what a
person is.  I don't think it's necessary to understand how people work in
order to re-create them.  I believe that we are the state of our molecules.
Certainly that's debatable, but assuming I'm correct in that belief, it
follows that it should be possible in principal to re-create a person
simply by putting a similar collection of atoms in the same orientations
as those that you have recorded.  The new copy should resume functioning
as soon as you release the atoms which then continue with their normal
chemical processes.  (You'ld probably have to also randomly displace them
slightly so that bonded atoms snap into place with enough energy to leave
a person at body temparature.)

There are then only two problems left: 1) inferring the state of the body
before it was frozen, and 2) putting the new atoms in place fast enough.
I think a reasonable solution to the first problem was described well
enough in the original message which involved handled the cracking repair
in a computer.  That ought to work.  It's much like sewing up a shirt
which has been badly torn in several places.  You don't need to understand
the original design, you just start sewing edges together from where the
tears end, and make a few simple guesses along the way.  If the shirt
wasn't completely shreded to start with, you'll end up with a working
shirt.  You could do it, so assume that a computer could too.

The other problem which involves pushing lots of atoms into precise
positions *very* quickly is completely beyond our current technology.
It's important to notice that there are no computational or apperant
physical limitations involved in solving this problem.

- Daniel Green
  

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