[ExI] Cryonics a theory or belief?.

[John K Clark]

John Grigg Wrote:

> please remember that I am hardly alone in my view on this.

Indeed you are not! Even on this list, with  members more enlightened than
99% of the general population, my view is still in the distinct minority.
I'm right nevertheless.

However in one way it doesn't matter; even if you're right (you're not)
your meme about identity has no future. Right or wrong people and
machines with memes like mine will not be afraid of radical
upgrading and will hopelessly out-compete beings with memes like yours.
I'll probably get chopped up by the Singularity anyway just like most
people, but at least I have a chance, you have none.

> Keep in mind the story of the scientist with the newly created perfect
> duplicate, who is totally convinced they are one and the same, and
> the  rival researcher who makes his point by taking out of a desk
> drawer a .44 magnum.

If the two were really identical they would both pull out a gun at the same
instant and point it at each other. In your scenario the two are radically
different, one is violent and one is not, one is undergoing a terrifying
experience and one is not.

> It's a high-tech alternative to the very old option of having a
> child as  one's personal immortality vehicle.

No, it's the same idea that your identity remains intact even after you went
to the dentist and had anesthesia to extract a tooth.

  John K Clark