X-Message-Number: 25090
From: "mike99" <>
Subject: Re: Qualia experiencer (Message #25077)
Date: Thu, 18 Nov 2004 10:47:42 -0700

Francois <> wrote:

>It seems to me that the qualia experiencer hypothesis is the death knell of
>any cryonics effort.

There is no qualia experiencer. There is no separation between the events
defined as an experience and the body-mind in which those events take place.
Your metaphysics is purely speculative and without solid foundation. The
philosophers who argue in favor of qualia should read Daniel Dennett's
devastating counterarguments which I, and many others, find irrefutable.


>However well a process to preserve a brain works,
>however perfectly its structure is preserved, even if it is down to the
>atomic level, a brain sitting in liquid nitrogen displays no activity at
>all. It percieves no qualia, there is NO functionning qualia experiencer
>within it. The person this brain belonged to is DEAD.

What is a person? What sort of an entity? If, as you seem to suggest, the
person is something other than the physical body, then what exactly is it?
Even if the person is an immaterial soul (which seems highly dubious, but
let's assume it is just for the sake of argument), what would prevent that
soul from re-associated with its cryonically preserved body upon the
reanimation of that body through purely scientific-technological means? If
the person is the activity of the brain, then by definition that person will
exist whenever that brain is operating within standard parameters.



>Any process used to
>restart brain functions, however perfectly it worked, would only start a
new
>qualia experiencer, different from the original one. ...
>Finally, lets not forget that we live in a quantized universe. ... "plank
time",
>a smallest possible time interval.

Planck time is 10e-43 seconds, BTW.


>Objects cannot smoothly go from one plank
>interval to the next because there is no possible intermediate time
>interval. They must disappear in one plank interval and reappear in the
>next.

But doesn't this fact undermine your argument? If every object in the
universe transitions between moments of Planck time seamlessly but without
intermediate states, then why does not a person also transition seamlessly
between the time period of cryonic suspension and reanimation?


Regards,

Michael LaTorra




"For any man to abdicate an interest in science is to walk with open eyes
towards slavery."
-- Jacob Bronowski

"Experiences only look special from the inside of the system."
-- Eugen Leitl

Member:
Extropy Institute: www.extropy.org
World Transhumanist Association: www.transhumanism.org
Alcor Life Extension Foundation: www.alcor.org
Society for Technical Communication: www.stc.org

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