X-Message-Number: 25046
Date: Sun, 14 Nov 2004 15:27:19 -0800
Subject: Sleep, Cryonics, and Personal Identity
From: <>

Dear Christine,

You wrote:

"I'd like to respond to the sentences below that cryonics is 
essentially like sleep...I'd like to submit that sleep, and cryonic 

suspension are not the same thing."

I agree. However, there is zero doubt in my mind that when 
reversible suspended animation becomes possible, personal identity 
is guaranteed to be preserved. Why? Because in such a case, the 
soul is not destroyed. It is only destruction of the soul that 
results in the death of personal identity. See my comments below.

You wrote:

"When one sleeps, they have definite, brain activity, which is 
different from the brain activity of an alert person. Sleep is a 
definite process that the body goes through, not a lack of brain 
activity. Even comatose people, for the most part, have brain 
activity. I am a supporter of cryonics, but we cannot equate 
cryonics to *a deep sleep* because it isn't. We don't know if the 
soul 
exists or not, but cannot make a statement, with our current 
knowledge, that we  wouldn't lose our identity in the process."

Well, whether or not we know if a soul exists depends on how we 
define 'soul'. As I have defined it, a soul is that part of you 
which experienes qualia---the subjective sensations of your inner 
life.

We can certainly know this exists, individually. I cannot be 
mistaken that I experience qualia, because in order for me to even 
know what qualia is, I have to have experienced it. It's rather 
like Descarte's 'I think, therefore I am.'

So knowing that I experience qualia, and believing that this qualia 

experiencer is some physical part of my brain[1], we can (in theory,

 anyway) make definite statements on whether cryonics preserves 
personal identity, based upon our knowledge of whether it destroys 
the qualia experiencer. I would say, the cryonics of 10 years from 
now will almost certainly preserve the qualia experiencer. I hope 
the cryonics of today does, too, but I can't say for sure. Indeed, 
I hope even the earliest and most primitive of cryonics methods 
preserves the qualia experiencer, though I must say I think the 
chances are low.

Certainly, no other method (freeze drying, plastination, perma 
frost, chemical fixation at room temperature, etc.) even has a 
chance.

"I hope we don't as I am betting my life on cryonics too."

Welcome to the crowd. Survive as long as you can and you should be 
OK.

Best Regards,

Richard B. R.

[1] Or can be treated as such, via the physical correlate theorem.

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