Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Posting-Version: version B 2.10.3 4.3bsd-beta 6/6/85; site topaz.RUTGERS.EDU Path: utzoo!linus!decvax!ucbvax!ucdavis!lll-crg!seismo!columbia!topaz!KFL From: KFL@MIT-MC.ARPA Newsgroups: net.sf-lovers Subject: Being on file Message-ID: <3641@topaz.RUTGERS.EDU> Date: Fri, 13-Sep-85 00:04:14 EDT Article-I.D.: topaz.3641 Posted: Fri Sep 13 00:04:14 1985 Date-Received: Sun, 15-Sep-85 05:30:27 EDT Sender: daemon@topaz.RUTGERS.EDU Organization: Rutgers Univ., New Brunswick, N.J. Lines: 26 From: Keith F. Lynch From: mtgzz!leeper@topaz.rutgers.edu (m.r.leeper) Date: 8 Sep 85 02:12:05 GMT 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. Sorry I didn't make myself clearer. You can keep genetic code on file and that will specify an identical twin, at best. Or you can also keep your mind on file. The latter is much harder, and is independant of the former. Nobody yet has any idea how large the mind is, how to read it, or how to write it into a new brain. I maintain that if that were possible, the newly constructed person would be you, or would at least think that he/she were you. (Interesting plot twists when you have multiple people who are the same person. See for instance Varley's _Ophiuchi_Hotline_. For same mind but different body, see for instace Niven's _World_Out_ Of_Time_.) Please note that we didn't know how to read or write or determine the size of a genetic code 30 years ago. Today, it's almost commonplace. In 30 more years, will the technology of mind reading/writing/copying be well developed? Would that mean that some people alive today will never die? ...Keith Brought to you by Super Global Mega Corp .com