X-Message-Number: 23930 Date: Mon, 19 Apr 2004 08:28:34 -0400 From: Thomas Donaldson <> Subject: CryoNet #23921 - #23928 FOR Scott Badger: Rather than pointing at others for starting the discussion, I will say how I feel Goedel's Theorem may relate to cryonics. Others may have different ideas, and I will point out that I have said that constructive math, which does not allow proofs by contradiction or assuming that all statements must be either true or false, will make Goedel's Theorem inapplicable. IF we assume that humans work like hyperadvanced computers, then we will ourselves think according to a formal system which will certainly (because it's hardly a simple one) put us into finding unknowable or unprovable statements. In short, there are things that we ourselves will never be able to know, not because our brains are too small but because they don't work in any way that allows us to know these things. Could we design creatures able to know such things even if we cannot? No, because by making such a design we would be working out how to answer those questions ourselves (especially if we're not constrained by human lifespan). I tell of these ideas not because I believe them, but because as near as I can see they probably lie behind the interest of some on Cryonet in Goedel's Theorem. As for myself, I do not think that we work like hyperadvanced computers to start with, nor do I think that the questions which we cannot answer: "This statement is false" is true, or is it false? have much practical meaning, even for someone who lives for trillions of years. (This is not to say at all that we might not someday find ways to improve our brains so that they CAN think thoughts impossible for mentally impoverished Einsteins). Best wishes and long long life for all, Thomas Donaldson Rate This Message: http://www.cryonet.org/cgi-bin/rate.cgi?msg=23930