X-Message-Number: 5601
From: Peter Merel <>
Subject: Memories
Date: Wed, 17 Jan 1996 01:36:04 +1100 (EST)

Dwight Jones writes,

>what is the ESSENTIAL difference between successful cryonic rebuilding 
>and regeneration from DNA seed? What is it about today's memories that 
>we MUST them to deem ourselves successful in this venture?

Software and hardware, Dwight. Without software, what good is a
computer?  Doesn't software exist in your philosophy? Do you imagine
that software is somehow implied by hardware? Or do you believe that all
programs are equivalent to one another?

We spend our lives writing our own internal software - it determines how
we behave, who we love, the people and qualities and dimensions of our
worlds. Perhaps your philosophy devalues this software, but for
most of us here that's the whole point; the hardware can be replaced 
by some other machine with sufficient power to express our software, 
and we won't fuss - many of us even look forward to it!

I'd suggest, if preserving your hardware is the only thing you desire,
that you forget about cryonics altogether - it's overkill. To preserve
your DNA you'd do a lot better to look into mummification, sealing up
your cells in amber, or advances in sequencing technology - much
simpler, cheaper and more likely to survive for long periods than
cryonic storage.

But you shouldn't expect people who don't share your faith to see things
quite the same way as you; certainly proselytizing a bunch of cynics,
individualists and science-fascists like us is unlikely to win you any 
converts :-)

Peter Merel.


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