X-Message-Number: 563
Date: 02 Dec 91 00:41:32 EST
From: Thomas Donaldson <>
Subject: Re: cryonics: #554 - #557

1. Radiation damage to the nuclei is a nonproblem, because cell nuclei
   have a GREAT deal of redundancy. You do notice, of course, that you're
   made of LOTS of cells. In his original book Ettinger even goes through
   the calculations. Yes, radiation would be a problem --- that is, if
   you have to be stored for 10,000 years or so. Is that what Keith is
   suggesting?
2. Nerve cell connectivity looks harder to recover than might first seem.
   My personal sense of the problem (there is no consensus) is that this
   apparent difficulty results first of all from OUR lack of understanding
   of the growth and development, and learning, cues which control this
   connectivity. We have a great deal more to work on than simply the 
   issue of whether or not our nerve cells are physically connected. The
   physical connection is supported by a lot of currently unknown chemistry
3. Keith's skepticism takes up the rug from the wrong end. Unless he feels
   that his own personal death is imminent within the next few weeks, then
   the REAL issue he faces is that of whether to WORK on this problem:
   donate money toward solving problems of long term storage, donate 
   time and effort, etc etc. Or is he really skeptical not for rational
   reasons but because he's very UNSKEPTICAL of the common idea that 
   death is now and must always be inevitable, regardless of what we do?
As I mentioned in 2), there is damage. The references should help work this
out a bit. Unfortunately one effect of the common idea referred to in 3)
is that as yet nobody has even TRIED to systematically freeze, revive, and
find optimal treatments for brains. If many had tried and failed, the
situation would look bad. But nobody has tried at all. We just have some
incidental observations made by people who weren't really concerned with
our problem. Perhaps Keith would like to point his skepticism elsewhere ...

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