X-Message-Number: 26599
Date: Wed, 13 Jul 2005 07:53:42 -0700 (PDT)
From: "D. den Otter" <>
Subject: Nine, ten, never sleep again... (reply to RBR)

Vin Diesel wrote:

<<Plastination, freeze drying, chemical fixation,
perma frost burial, and other attempts to preserve the
'information' of a brain are exactly equivalent---from
the perspective of personal survival---to 
annihilation.>>

Yeah, but so is going to sleep. The loss of
consciousness is the real divide when it comes to (the
illusion of) 'personal survival'. And while it could
be argued that sleep is something of a grey zone, a
state during which the 'self' retreats rather than
dies, there can be little doubt regarding the absolute
consciousness-stopping power of deanimation followed
by cryopreservation. All electrical activity, and
therefore the ethereal 'essence of self', stops.
You're as dead as a doornail.

But really, who cares?

<<It therefore greatly disturbs me that Otter is 
suggesting these methods be used by cryonicists, and
supported by cryonics organizations.>>

Only as a last resort. However, ultimately
plastination, permafrost burial, freeze drying,
regular cryonics and vitrification are all just
different flavors of the same ice cream. None of them
can truly save the essence of self (only mind
uploading or sleep-eliminating drugs/genetic
modifications could do that); all they can do is offer
some religion-free peace of mind.

Oh, and guess what? Free will and even time itself are
almost certainly just subjective illusions. No one
ever really lives, and no one ever really dies.

But, again, who cares? I sure don't. Now back to our
regularly scheduled program...

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