X-Message-Number: 4629 From: (Thomas Donaldson) Subject: Re: CryoNet #4626 - #4628 Date: Sat, 15 Jul 1995 12:24:20 -0700 (PDT) Hi again! I have not yet examined Ralph's posting on WWW. In that sense, I'm not qualifiedto say anything; however I do hope that he has more to say on this subject than he had in the recent article in CRYONICS. If he has no more to add, then a post on the WWW does not increase its logical standing. Ralph is well known as an expert in cryptography, and I have never argued that his statements about cryptography are false. The persistent problem with his arguments is that he consistently omits the second clause ie. it is as if he states "All men are mortal", and then says "therefore Socrates is mortal", but never establishes that Socrates is a man. Yet even with this example, who or what have we named "Socrates"? A dog? A cat? A sequoia tree? A strain of bacteria? A Greek myth? I too want cryonics to succeed. I continue to believe that we have significant uncertainty about whether we can be revived (ie. whether sufficient information has been preserved) with present techniques. Research to improve our methods is important not just for publicity but because our lives are on the line. Nor does a posting on WWW make a fallacious argument any less fallacious. And for those who might ask why I am a cryonicist, I will say simply that no other treatment of my body gives me any chance at all for revival ... while cryonics provides some chance, to a presently unknown degree. Best and long long life, Thomas Donaldson () Rate This Message: http://www.cryonet.org/cgi-bin/rate.cgi?msg=4629