X-Message-Number: 23586 From: "Geoff Lee" <> Subject: Multiple Cryonics - An Addition to Cryonics Date: Wed, 10 Mar 2004 16:06:11 +1100 The information that this document/posting is based on comes from a document entitled "Second Language (Idea)" (the Reference) by Pseudo_Intellectual. I also read another document that contained the same sort of things as "the Reference", but I will essentially stick to "the Reference" here. The following is stated in "the Reference": "It's been observed by numerous medical professionals that following trauma (eg. a stroke or damage caused by removing a brain tumor) in or around Broca's area (the language centre of the brain) that occasionally the part of the brain where the damage occurred happened to be the location where the first language - but not necessarily language in its entirety - lived. This manifests in the bewildering spectacle of the recovering victim permanently losing their first language, and having to rely entirely on their (frequently less-apt) second or later languages (a second or later language learnt well after early childhood - say a language learnt in adulthood), which would be residing in a nearby and undamaged portion of the brain. Of course, given that approximately 25% of brain tumors hit around Broca's area, the area where later language lives is as likely to be struck as the area where the first language lives - but so long as you have a later language you are packing a spare." So far all credit to writer of "the Reference". "The Reference" will now be adapted to cryonics with a number of bells and whistles thrown in for good measure. To do this, I will take a hypothetical scenario. There are two persons, A and B, who are identical twins. Both A and B grow up becoming native speakers of English. Of the two, only person B studies and acquires a second language - functionality in Spanish during this person's 20s. Person B maintains the Spanish skills throughout the first life cycle. Both A and B are also members of the same cryonics organisation. At 85 years of age plus, both have a heartattack on the same day and as a result of this, both are cryonically suspended at the same time by the same cryonics organisation. Also both suspensions are essentially identical. For both A and B, preservation in the area of the brain where the first language resides is not good - very advanced nanothechnology would be needed to repair the damage. For both A and B, preservation in the area of the brain where a second language would typically reside is very good as is preservation in the area(s) of the brain where their memories are that best define them - sophisticated rewarming techniques and some not too extreme extensions to existing medical technologies are needed to get these parts of the brain functioning again. The above results in person B being able to commence the second life cycle (say) 150 years after deanimation, while this person's twin, person A , can only commence the second life cycle (say) 600 years after deanimation due to the time required to research and develop the very sophisticated advanced nanotechnologies that are needed. Here, I am assuming that a combination of the language and memory subsystems of the brain is its critical component. The sum of these two sub-systems combined, I would think, would be greater than the sum of the two individual sub-sytems. Therefore, both would need to be ready to be put into good working condition in order to reanimate a person and thus the relative early reanimation of person B compared with person A. Improvisation could be made if necessary with other sub-systems such as the visual sub-system by employing artificial technologies. In addition, I would think that you could say that the language sub-system of the brain is an area that contains important specialized memories. This is why I have linked language and memory. Furthermore, why not work towards developing technologies that allow different cryopreservation techniques and technologies to be applied to the same brain. Apply one technology to the area of the brain where the first language resides and another technology to the area of the brain where the (university learnt) second language resides. Also, apply one technology to the memories that define a person in a bit of a distorted way when (say) 30 and another to the memories that define the person just before they need to be cryonically suspended at (say) 85. The difference might be something as simple as a 5% change in the concentration of the cryoprotectant. This way a person who is cryonically suspended doesn't have to rely on just one set of cryonics procedures and technologies. To illustrate the above further, say a new cryonic suspension technology becomes available, but it is assessed as very high risk (even within the boundary conditions of cryonics itself) - a person could be reanimated after 40 years (very high risk - possible high pay out), but this figure could be as high as 2000 years (very high risk - possible enormous loss). With the existing cryonic suspension technology it is assessed that under ideal conditions a person could be rereanimated after just 150 years. It is also assessed that there is little variation to this figure. With multiple cryonics a person could have both the very high risk new cryonics suspension technology and the existing cryonics suspension technology applied at deanimation. By doing this a person would have to accept that they may be reanimated with the mind set of (say) a 30 year old Spanish speaking person or the mindset of (say) an 85 year old English speaking person. This could also have been ... 85 year old Spanish speaking ... etc. This also assumes that the person is reanimated at the earliest opportunity. Note that overall risk is reduced with multiple cryonics - the author of "the reference" stated that so long as you have a later language you are packing a spare. One downside to multiple cryonics is that it would be very difficult to do in comparison with standard cryonics. I am not claiming what I have written here is 100% accurate - the main purpose of this document is to put these ideas onto the table. 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