So people who say “brain preservation [or cryonics] doesn’t work” are either confused or >>making a very strong claim about neuroscience (that molecular structure doesn’t encode >>identity/memories) and/or future technology (that we can know with certainty what future >>technology won’t be able to do)
That is not entirely true. Some people who say “cryonics doesn’t work” mean “identity is irretrievably lost when the brain activity stops, and in the best case you will have a different person with the same memory and personality traits”. Since that argument doesn’t give any testable predictions, it cannot be disproved.
That is not entirely true. Some people who say “cryonics doesn’t work” mean “identity is irretrievably lost when the brain activity stops, and in the best case you will have a different person with the same memory and personality traits”. Since that argument doesn’t give any testable predictions, it cannot be disproved.
The argument we cease to exist every time we go to sleep also can’t be disproved, so I wouldn’t personally lose much sleep over that.
My point here is that this is a very strong claim about neuroscience—that molecular structure doesn’t encode identity/memories.