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From: leeper@mtgzz.UUCP (m.r.leeper)
Newsgroups: net.sf-lovers
Subject: Re: Matter Transmission
Message-ID: <1137@mtgzz.UUCP>
Date: Sat, 7-Sep-85 22:12:05 EDT
Article-I.D.: mtgzz.1137
Posted: Sat Sep  7 22:12:05 1985
Date-Received: Mon, 9-Sep-85 01:00:42 EDT
References: <3543@topaz.RUTGERS.EDU>
Organization: AT&T Information Systems Labs, Middletown NJ
Lines: 30


 >From: Keith F.  Lynch <KFL@MIT-MC.ARPA>
 >
 >[Once your genetic code is on disk...]  
 >
 >    Postultimate thought: if you put yourself on file could
 >    you ever truly die?
 >
 >  Sure.  If all the copies get wiped out.  Just as books,
 >music, and computer data can become irretrievably lost.  The
 >more copies, and in the more places, the better.  Keep one
 >in another solar system (it's called supernova insurance).

I think that there is a misconception here.  Your species remains
reconstructable while your genetic code is on file, but you do not.
Genetic code only allows somebody to make something that looks sort of
like you, not to remake you.  Suppose you are an identical twin.  That
means your genetic code is not just preserved, it is up and walking
around.  Now you are killed by a rabid wombat.  Are you not truly
dead just because you have an identical twin walking around.  About the
best you can do with the genetic code is create a baby that will grow
into something that will look no more like you looked than your
identical twin did.  Parents usually can tell the difference between
identical twins due to environmental (vrs. hereditary) differences.
Sorry to tell you this, but when you die, you die.  It doesn't matter
if you have your entire genetic code on file with the National Bureau
of Standards.  There is no coming back.

				Mark Leeper
				...ihnp4!mtgzz!leeper