Death
For some reason I seem to be getting a steady trickle of visitors who have googled for “death”, in a variety of interesting combinations, such as:
- astrology death
- atheist freaked out about death
- bee stings death (and of course the old classic, “DEATH AND BEES“)
- biologist mysterious death (intriguing…)
- death carnival
- death stuff
- death, but you’re still here
- life at death
- post human death energy
- systematics death dawkins (…what?!)
- things to do before death (how about … everything?)
- what people see before death (again … they’re not gonna see anything afterwards!)
- “roundabout” deaths
The latest one in the line is this:
- how they treat death in sweden
To answer the question: Uh… we don’t. I think death is one of those conditions well known for being, well, incurable.
I want to read an announcement of the 36th Death Carnival, now up at Uncommon Descent.
Comment by Christ Davis — December 20, 2007 @ 19:31
Hehehe…
Comment by Glynn — December 21, 2007 @ 00:53
An interesting question for atheists and non-atheists alike.
Assumptions:
1) It is, or will be, possible to build a machine sufficiently complex to perfectly replicate a human brain/mind.
2) Bob’s ‘brain state’ is ‘uploaded’ to the machine.
3) Bob’s body ceases to function and is ‘brain dead’.
Question: Is Bob dead?
Comment by Tim Eby — December 24, 2007 @ 20:39
Tim, that question ties in with what the definition of life is or should be. I would say he would not be biologically alive, but he as a person would still exist. Being alive, for me, is very much a biological process, and the moment that process ends you’re no longer alive - but that doesn’t exclude that your consciousness has been transferred to another medium. In the end, isn’t this all semantics?
Comment by Felicia Gilljam — December 24, 2007 @ 22:13
This question may not be entirely academic in the near future, if the AI people are correct in their assumptions. For example; suppose Bob’s wife has taken out a 1 million euro life insurance policy on Bob. If Bob is biologically ‘dead’ but still resident on another medium, can she collect? What if she makes a backup copy of Bob and then turns the machine off?
Comment by Tim Eby — December 24, 2007 @ 22:23
Allow me to continue my ramble and use Bob as a surrogate for every human being. I find your response, in this as yet hypothetical case, that “he would not be biologically alive, but he as a person would still exist”. How is that different from “life after death”? Is life media dependent? If Bob’s wife erases the backup copy of Bob, is she guilty of murder? …. In short: What is Bob?
As a civilization we are rapidly, and I think blindly, approaching a very important singularity: The intersection of Science/Technology with Religion/Culture. Religious/Scientific conflicts expressed also as Culture/Technology conflicts will inevitably become both more intense and more ambiguous. For example: Suppose our machines are capable of accommodating a perfect copy of a human ‘mind state’ and Bob is uploaded to the machine. Bob then is killed or dies: The ‘mind state copy’ is then ‘downloaded into a biological clone of Bob’s body; Has Bob been reincarnated? Does Bobs wife have to return the insurance money?…
If a team of very good programmers create a generic copy of a human ‘mind state’ and downloads it to a clone: Have they created a human being? Can they patent the entity they have created? Will it be necessary to patent ourselves to avoid being turned into slaves in an ‘afterlife’? Who or what would own the patent?… etc.
Within a few decades the question of life and is there a “life after death” may well be a central question of our civilization in a form that was not even imagined a few decades ago. What other Science/Technology - Religion/Culture questions will we face. Will we be ready to face these questions?
Comment by Tim Eby — December 25, 2007 @ 00:09
To answer the question: Uh… we don’t. I think death is one of those conditions well known for being, well, incurable.
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I love that!
Comment by Tina B — December 27, 2007 @ 15:55
i m a student and i need a statistics of human death due to bee stings . please send me those file and statistics . it should be up to 2007.
Comment by ZUBAYER RATUL — February 26, 2008 @ 04:52