Re: Life And Death (Natural Immortality)

Anders Sandberg (nv91-asa@nada.kth.se)
Thu, 10 Apr 1997 13:35:14 +0200 (MET DST)


On Wed, 9 Apr 1997, Mike C. wrote:

> To understand life we must understand death.
> Alive is not dead.
> Dead is not alive.

This IMHO far too aristotelian; there is no clear division between the
two. Perhaps it would be better to say "alive is less dead" and "dead is
less alive".

> When is dead dead?
> No brain activity means death.
> Before that no heart activity meant death.
> Before that no lung activity meant death.
> Perhaps there was a time when no structural muscle activity meant death.

Remember that the old Greeks said that Hypnos, the god of sleep, was the
brother of Thanatos, the god of death.

Death seems to be a function of medical advances. The interesting question
is whether there exists an asymptote as medicine goest to infinity.

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