X-Message-Number: 25098
Date: Thu, 18 Nov 2004 17:17:55 -0800
Subject: Freezing & Qualia (to Robert)
From: <>

Dear Robert:

You wrote:

"This is not correct. There is lots of evidence of freeze-hardiness 
of 
synapses."

Well, I hope you are right. But I'm glad you're working on 
vitrification, all the same.

[snip]

You wrote:

"As for the survival question, the short answer is that it remains 
open, and anyone who thinks he knows the answer is kidding himself. 
We don't yet know enough about either physics or biology--about the 
nature of time and space, and about the anatomy and physiology of 
qualia."

Well, I think we can all agree, reversible vitrification preserves 
the self. That's a goal I hope CI and Alcor are both working 
towards.

You wrote:

"My forthcoming book will have a lot more on this, but a short 
version of my tentative suggestion is that there is no 'qualia 
experiencer' and this term is not even meaningful. (Cf. the 
homunculus problem.) Put another way, the experience and the 
experiencer are the same."

I look at my computer screen and see black text on a white 
background. Something is seeing white (namely, some part of me). 
Whatever that thing is, I call the qualia experiencer. Whether or 
not in my brain, the experiencing of white is distinct from the 
representation of white, is what you're really getting at. It's 
mostly a matter of terminology.

[snip]

Best Regards,

Richard B. R.

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