X-Message-Number: 7925
From:  (Thomas Donaldson)
Subject: Re: CryoNet #7910 - #7920
Date: Sun, 23 Mar 1997 14:05:58 -0800 (PST)

Hi again!

It looks like my net node has resolved its problems. 

About survival of our hormonal system: one point which needs raising here is
that our hypothalamus and pituitary --- both of which will go with us if we
are neuropreservation cases --- actually act as controllers of all our other
glands etc. You are ENTIRELY in your head, even if you may not feel that way.
(Our hypothalamus is actually part of our brain, while our pituitary is not,
but is very closely linked). 

Your pancreas, adrenal glands, gonads, etc. will respond to the guidance given
by the above parts of your brain (which depend on other brain areas, too). 
They have no independent memory (except, of course, for their DNA).

In that sense I think that worries about survival of "endocrine memory" base
themselves on a misconception about how we work.

As for Taoism (which as a philosophy does have lots more to be said for it
than Buddhism, and may have even produced the nearest version of science in
China that existed before European science --- cf R. Needham for this) I will
draw the same distinction as before, with a twist. Yes, it is true that we
cannot see the world for what it really is. But that does not imply that we
construct any kind of map (a symbolic object, once more) inside us. Instead
we have a large number of neurons, with their connections, interacting with
one another. Yes, if we had the power, we might someday read out a map from
someone's brain, but that again is a symbolic representation of what goes
on inside that person's brain. It should not be identified with the actual
events.

Why is it that we do not construct such a map? First of all, we certainly
don't do so consciously (that we might make much smaller maps of particular
things does not matter here). Second, how then do we explain all the 
behavior of other animals? We ARE animals, after all, and our thinking 
evolved from that of ape-like creatures, which evolved from that of 
primitive mammals etc etc. I think it unreasonable to have a theory of
awareness that does not admit that horses might also be aware --- not so
sharply aware as we, nor so knowledgeable about the past and future --- but
still aware. Or pick gorillas if you feel closer to them. Our brain does
not work on a symbolic level only, it works on a lower level the same as
any machine might work (the famous Model T I mentioned included). And because
we did evolve language abilities, we can then put what we think into
symbols. But that should not be identified with thinking itself.

			Long long life,

				Thomas Donaldson

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