X-Message-Number: 26621
Date: Fri, 15 Jul 2005 08:30:24 -0700
Subject: Undecidable? Also: Utility of Low-Cost Preservation
From: <>

Otter wrote:

> Not quite; since illusions are all we have, they do
> matter. My point was that the whole identity &
> survival issue is highly subjective, fuzzy and
> arbitrary. It has more to do with emotions (what
> 'feels right') than with hard facts.

Not at all. There is a definite answer to the following question:

Suppose I am copied while suspended, then destroyed, and sometime 
later my copy is revived. From my subjective point of view (where 
'my' refers to the original, from whence the copy was derived), is 
this scenario equivalent to annihilation, or a deep sleep?

The answer to this question does not depend on emotions. It is not 
subjective, fuzzy, or arbitrary. The question has a definite 
answer: which is, in my view, 'equivalent to annihilation'. The 
implications are profound for anyone who wants to survive. And 
critical because of the possibility that the 'patternist' way of 
thinking will make further inroads into cryonics and result in the 
needless annihilation of cryonics members.

Let me say another word on the attempt to create a low-cost 
preservation option. Not only is this useless (since, as I have 
argued, preservation methods that are so destructive to the brain 
they require re-creation are equivalent to annihilation), but if 
attempted, it will be a waste of time and money for all those 
involved. Why? Because cost is not what prevents people from 
becoming cryonicists. The vast majority of people in industrialized 
countries can afford cryonics. They choose not to because cryonics 
doesn't work. Creating an affordable preservation option that is 
even *less* likely to work will attract even fewer people. Witness 
this: Alcor charges twice the money as CI and has no fewer signups 
or patients.

Concentrate on making cryonics work (i.e. take it to the next 
level, true suspended animation), and you will attract people in 
droves.

I will be surprised if a single person signs up to have their brain 
freeze dried or chemically preserved. Hopefully those involved will 
keep this project far removed from cryonics.

Richard B. Riddick

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