Magazine section

Memory and Personal Identity

4 essays examining this part of cryonics history, practice, evidence, or possible futures.

Would a Perfect Copy of You Actually Be You?

I keep thinking about a line that comes to me in quiet moments: a copy is not the thing itself, not in the way a map is not the land. The map can resemble the land, can show every road and river, but it is a…

If Your Brain Is Repaired, Are You Still the Same Person?

I have spent years watching the edges of my thoughts blur and sharpen, as if a fog lifts only to reveal a new fog waiting beyond. The questions come slow at first, then faster. What makes a person a person? Is…

Are You Your Memories?

I am thinking about memory the way a door is made to fit a frame. It looks whole from the outside, but the hinges are a little loose, and the frame has marks where the wall settled. My mind keeps returning to…