X-Message-Number: 25378
Date: Wed, 22 Dec 2004 06:30:43 -0500
From: Thomas Donaldson <>
Subject: CryoNet #25368 - #25376

Hi Bob, Mike, and RBR:

The argument about QEs has started to become metaphysical. It's not
that any of us has decided that we have some kind of extra spiritual
character, but that some are adopting positions which are totally
impossible to test. 

We all want to survive, and unfortunately it looks likely that all of
us will need cryonic suspension in order to do so. If suspended and
later revived, we'll find ourselves in a world with far more technology
available to answer whether or not we are the same person as we were
before our suspension. Right now none of us would consider that our
QE or identity experiencer is anything other than some kind of physical
object, in the broad sense ie. a light wave, too, is a physical object.
And if all the tests available after our suspension agree that we're
the same person as we were before our suspension, I will feel 
satisfied that cryonics has worked and I have survived. 

I also note that none of us has yet been suspended and later revived.
How we'll feel after that at least comes close to the main question 
in dispute. We'll find out, when and if we are revived.

To take any other approach to the question becomes metaphysical, not
because anyone has decided that we have totally nonphysical Soul or
whatever, but because all available tests of continuity and identity
say that we remain the same. To insist on the opposite with no proof
at all, nor any indication to the contrary, is to be metaphysical.
And that is my summary of the QE debate.

           Best wishes and long long life to all,

                Thomas Donaldson

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