X-Message-Number: 5607 Date: Wed, 17 Jan 1996 01:28:05 GMT From: Garret Smyth <> Subject: Saving DNA (only) > Dwight G. Jones: > Eventually all of > our tissues must be replaced, brain and all. Since that is the case, > 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? We know that the atoms that make us up are replaced over a regular period, but they are not just shoved in higgledy-piggledy. Our *tissues* are the same, even though the building block that make them up are changed. Water flows along a river, but we still know which river it is from day to day (the river I live by was written about by the Romans, and they are relative newcomers). Memories remain even if the matter in our brains gets replaced. That is the point of recording what is in our brains. [I've mentioned before that downloading, despite the amount of bytes it gets here hasn't yet reached a practical level, so let's leave it out, for the moment.] Recreating clones really wouldn't be "ourselves" in any mental self. If you just wish to get your genes into the future you are not any further along than any other creature futher along than amoebae. Cloning is unsure, high tech (and the tech isn't invented yet), probably expensive, and is probably illegal (in the UK anyway, under the Human Embryo Act - which is amusing, since cryonics wasn't touched, and the government *does* know about it). If you really have the urge to pass on your genes the cheapest, easiest, most legal, and most fun way is the old fashioned one. Close friends of mine who have done it, even the male ones, tell me it can be "fulfilling", whatever the hell that means! TTFN Garret -- Garret Smyth Phone: 0181 789 1045 or +44 181 789 1045 Rate This Message: http://www.cryonet.org/cgi-bin/rate.cgi?msg=5607