X-Message-Number: 25489 Date: Sat, 8 Jan 2005 08:06:23 -0800 Subject: Nature of Existence, to Henri From: <> Dear Henri, I am sorry for overlooking your message. I have posted this on CryoNet and CC'd to your e-mail address. You wrote: "1) I would like to know what kind of new and still unknown physical forces and/or processes are responsible for keeping the QE intact in a frozen body that will be destroyed by atomic disassembly-reassembly ?" The QE is a hunk of matter in your brain, arranged in a way satisfying certain relations. If you change the arrangement so that the relations are no longer satisfied, you have destroyed the QE. This is not difficult to understand. Since matter and energy cannot be created or destroyed, when we speak of the continued existence or the destruction of nouns, we are of course referring not to the continued existence or destruction of their physical constituents (that would be meaningless), but to the continued existence or destruction of a set of properties. The QE is destroyed by disassembly because the QE is a physical system possessing certain properties which do not hold for a random (or disassembled) collection of atoms. In a similar fashion, a dog is destroyed by a flamethrower because the flamethrower changes the arrangement of atoms, such that the hunk of matter no longer satisfies the 'dog relations'. In both cases, the matter does not cease to exist. But the thing referred to by the noun does. You wrote: "2) What is the rational reason to assume such new forces and/or processes ?" I don't assume any new forces or proceses. Of course, a rebuilt QE will be chemically identical to the original QE. But it won't be the original QE, as you can conclusively prove by building a copy while the original exists. I don't have to invoke quantum mechanics to show you that a rebuilt QE won't be the original QE. I just have to get you to think about what those words mean. Best Regards, Richard B. R. Rate This Message: http://www.cryonet.org/cgi-bin/rate.cgi?msg=25489