X-Message-Number: 9198
From: Thomas Donaldson <>
Subject: Re: CryoNet #9187 - #9190
Date: Tue, 24 Feb 1998 00:16:40 -0800 (PST)

Hi again!

One reason I personally have been interested in survival of memories is 
that there is a good case that everything ELSE about us will survive
cryonic suspension.

As for just what I remember or you remember, that too is a marker for our 
individuality. You could not be in the position you are in if you literally
had no memory at all. Moreover, I doubt very much that everything but the
facts and methods of aerospace engineering (AND some ability to speak at
least one language, AND the ability to find your way to the Men's Room, 
AND many other things about your life) is missing. 

So you do have memories, and someone without those memories might not be
you --- even if identical genetically.

And yes, we will no doubt forget many things. But we will learn others,
and remember others, as we go along. There are events in my life which have
stuck with me for at least 50 years (I'm now 54), and others I have
forgotten. Your memories do not have to remain permanently there to 
characterize you as an individual. I'll even go so far as to say that 
(unless you've led a very quiet and uneventful life) you've probably had
experiences which will stick with you for hundreds of years. But it is our
memories at the time of our suspension which characterize us, and similarly
for any other time. As time passes, we'll probably accumulate other marks
to show our history, too.

As for NAMES, the brain circuits for them seem to be different from those
for other memories, and they aren't the only class of things for which that's
true. So an inability to remember names may even say something about the
structure of your brain. If you remember running around with this other
person, but not his name, that is memory too. (Incidentally, I myself 
suffered a brain tumor, with brain damage, in 1988, and my own memory for
names went WAY down for a while --- though some of it has recovered. But I
still have lots of memories of other kinds).

So that is what I have to say to your question. It may not be a direct
answer, but it may at least tell you what I think on this matter.

			Best wishes and long long life,

				Thomas Donaldson

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