RE: We are NOT our DNA ( was Motivation and Motives)

From: gts (gts@optexinc.com)
Date: Mon Oct 07 2002 - 14:10:54 MDT


Lee,

I almost missed this new thread, which I see branches from the
motivation thread. I just a moment ago posted a reply to you in that
thread and unfortunately I don't have a lot of time right now to respond
to you here (as is evidenced by my many typos in my other message :-).

But let me just say this for now:

You wrote:

> Yes, the information [in genes] is key, but you do not appear to
> appreciate a common view here that the *information*
> is also registered in the remainder of the body outside
> the DNA at any *specific* point in time. For example,
> I dare say that if all my DNA ceased being transcribed
> into RNA at this very moment, I would have at least a
> few minutes before anything untoward occurred. My body's
> protein production and nerve firings would continue
> unabated. Therefore, what is truly *me* can be captured
> by a complete analysis of my body excluding my DNA.

I disagree. You cannot capture what is truly you at any given moment
without also capturing the information encoded in your genes.

You are not so much your genes as you are the expressions of them. The
manner in which your genes are expressed changes through time in
response to changes in your internal and external environments. Because
only your genes contain the instructions for their future expressions in
response to environments yet to be experienced, the information
contained in them must be taken with you into the transhuman future,
else you will not be the same person in that future.

-gts



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