X-Message-Number: 25671
Date: Mon, 7 Feb 2005 06:55:23 -0500
From: Thomas Donaldson <>
Subject: CryoNet #25665 - #25670

HI Everyone!

Some comments:

First of all, to Basie (B Coetzee):
That some of our memories are inaccurate has been known for years now.
This problem generally occurs in cases in which we aren't confronted 
with the memory constantly. It's also quite rare for memories of 
nonpersonal facts ie. the capital of Czechoslovakia, for instance --
unless you happen to be Czech and spent a good part of your personal
life there. Personal memories, however, are often inaccurate.


As I have been saying, even in Cryonet, and as current work on memory
has found, we all have several different kinds of memory, with each 
kind dependent on different brain areas. Memory for the capital of
England is fairly resistant to falsity, while memory for what an 
acquaintance has said, especially if he/she isn't a close acquaintance,
can differ considerably from what happened.

So do you really want to remove ALL your memories? For that matter,
I would suggest that even false memories, given that you do not 
believe them strongly, will ultimately turn out better than no memories
at all. Consider this person who you thought was friendly. Your memory
of him (her?) has many parts, some correct and others quite false.
You can recognize him on the street; you know his name, and probably
something of his mannerisms. If you lost memory of him/her completely,
then his ability to prey on you as a complete stranger would be 
increased. Not so good at all.

To Doug Skrecky:
I have actually decided to save your messages on this Cryonet, mainly
because they say interesting things about how our cells work in
culture. Their bearing to our own lives remains distant (though
work on the relation of telomeres to our lifespans remains very 
interesting). I strongly doubt that we'll increase our lifespans
by only looking at the behavior of human cells, but you did, this
time, summarize some interesting papers. Behavior of isolated cells
DOES BEAR on lifepans, even if it hardly gives a complete picture.

                Best wishes and long long life to all,

                  Thomas Donaldson

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