A view on cryonics (was Re: [extropy-chat] Bad Forecasts!)

[John K Clark]

"Brett Paatsch" <bpaatsch at bigpond.net.au>

> I don't think my identity is a matter of taste, its a matter of fact.

Yes, but if something can remember being me then that thing is me, that's
why I'm not terrified to go to sleep at night, I'm confident in the morning
something will remember being me.

> I am my cellular substrate, I think you are yours.

Our fundamental disagreement is that you think of yourself as a noun, I
think of myself as an adjective; I am the way matter reacts when it is
organized in a johnkclarkian way. I don't see how it could be any other way,
there is nothing special about my atoms, they are run of the mill,
completely generic, and are in constant flux anyway.

As for Cryonics, I don't know if it could work or not. If the freezing
process is chaotic then recovering the original pattern is probably
impractical, if it's not chaotic then there is a chance. One thing is
certain, if you're frozen your chance of survival is better than if you're
eaten by worms or burned up; and given that the jackpot is astronomically
large it seems worth buying a ticket even if your odds of wining are small.

  John K Clark    jonkc at att.net