[ExI] Cryonics is getting weird

[samantha]

Dave Sill wrote:
>
>>> We don't really know that, do we? Properly embalmed and stored in a
>>> sealed casket, it seems *possible* that sufficient structure could
>>> remain. Do you really want Alcor to just assume it's useless mush?
>>>       
>> Give me a break.  Scientifically we very much do know that.
>>     
>
> I disagree. Do you have any evidence for your claim?
>
>   
Open about any medical textbook on the brain and read a bit.

>> You can't reanimate a person whose brain has already decayed away either.
>> Precisely my point.
>>     
>
> And my point is that nobody knows if the brain has "decayed away"
> until it's exhumed and examined.
>   

We have scads and scads of experience/knowledge regarding in what 
circumstances and how fast brains decay.  We don't have to dig up each 
instance to know,  for any realistic value of the word "know",  in that 
particular case.
>   
>> When it is utterly pointless and only gruesome is left it should.
>>     
>
> You presume it's utterly pointless without actually examining the
> brain. You also ignore other possible benefits of this action, such as
> discouraging other families from blocking cryopreservation, that make
> it less than pointless.
>   
I don't need to examine yet another specific brain to expect with so 
little possibility of error as to be inconsequential that the brain is a 
total loss for purposes of reanimation.  We most certainly do know that 
much conclusively.    Those that say we don't have the burden of 
presenting evidence that a brain can retain enough of its structure to 
preserve all the information necessary for you to be you under such 
conditions.   Otherwise it is just wishful thinking.

- samantha



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