X-Message-Number: 3698
Date: 12 Jan 95 02:00:46 EST
From: Mike Darwin <>
Subject: CRYONICS brain vs body

I have very little time since we have just done another cryopreservation and
loads of work needs to be done.

Mike Price assumes that all motor activity/identity critical information is in
the brain.

Actually, cats on a treadmill can walk clumsily without a cerebellum (severed
spinal cord).  Further, people such as acrobats, concert pianists, and perhaps
others with lifetime skills training will LOOSE information which is in encoded
into their peripheral nervous systems, organs glands and so  on.  The brain
modifies the body and the body modifies the brain.  They are a unit. Period.

Even I, the arch advocate of neurocryopreservation, have never denied this.  I
believe that there will be some loss of indentity information which may vary
from totally unimportant to very critical depending upon the individual.  While
high spinal cord injury patients do provide some reassurance about the overall
conservation of identity, it does not adress the rather deeper and more complex
problem of re-interfacing a brain with a new body.  THAT experiment has simply
not been done.

For the record, I still (personally) think neuro is the best option for *me*.
But I am far less dogmatic than I used to be when advising others.  Ultimately
it comes down to a question of trade-offs and value judgments.  In any event, I
think it naieve to presume that for EVERYONE the loss information stored in the
body will be trivial or of no consequence.  The key is to give good information
for BOTH sides of the argument and let the individual choose.


And finally, the psychological and familial problems unique to neuro may have to
be taken into account as well.  Better to be frozen whole-body than not all.

There are, however, some serious advantages to neuro which have only recently
begun to emerge: like if some kills you either through incompetence or studied
malice.  I will address this issue at some point in the future when I have more
time.

Mike Darwin

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