Редактирование: Cryonics (раздел)

== Philosophy ==
''Main: [[Problems with mind uploading]]''

While it's sad that people focus on philosophical issues instead of the myriad technical and social problems that plague cryonics, along with its attachment to a history of failure and incompetence, philosophical concerns should still be addressed.

By far the biggest philosophical concern people put forward against cryonics is the issue of continuity of consciousness. In these debates, people can easily talk past each other by using different definitions of what constitutes consciousness and how this relates to personal identity. In general, we have two definitions of consciousness:

* '''Real Definition:''' Consciousness is self-awareness, and thus becomes discontinuous during sleep, unconsciousness, et cetera.
* '''Alternate Definition:''' Consciousness is defined as a subset of (Or the totality of) brain activity, and thus a person's consciousness remains continuous during sleep and what is usually called 'unconsciousness', and only stops when brain activity ceases (Medico-legal death, not necessarily [[Anders Sandberg's Transhuman Terminology#INFORMATION-THEORETIC DEATH|Information-theoretic]]).

But what is relevant is not the definition of consciousness, but how this matters to personal identity. Again, here we have two opinions:

* '''Definition 1:''' Personal identity is a person's personality and memories. Consciousness is fundamental to life, of course, but its continuity is not fundamental to personal identity (It uses the Real Definition of consciousness).
* '''Definition 1:''' Personal identity is a person's personality, memories, and continuous consciousness (It uses the Alternate Definition of consciousness). When consciousness becomes discontinuous, the identity 'stops' and ceases to exist.

Under Definition 1, cryonics patients will be the same person (± brain damage). Under the second definition, when they are repaired, the patients are fundamentally different people who claim to be the same as the original and only shre personality and memories.