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

[Damien Broderick]

At 02:05 PM 9/18/2004 -0400, John K Clark wrote:

>My claim was and still is that I can devise thought experiments where the
>two individuals involved do not know which is the copy and which is the
>original, nor does anyone else, nor will anyone ever know.

I can devise thought experiments where you are brainwashed into being the 
Manchurian Candidate and tap-dance on stage while singing like a canary but 
that doesn't mean I'd be prepared to be murdered so someone quite like me 
might possibly be recompiled in 100 years time. It doesn't even mean that 
I'd be greatly motivated to spend money now on the prospect that after I 
die by natural causes another version of my brain/body might be constructed.

And so we return to the usual antinomy, and nobody seems likely to change 
his mind (an amusing phrase under the circumstances).

Damien Broderick