What is death like?

[I Ratant]

A good friend of mine dropped down stone dead two weeks ago. It was hard to lose him but rather that than see him suffer with some awful disease. Where is his ''forever'' now punshhh? He wasn't famous so when the last person who knew him dies, he will be really gone, forever.

.
"The evil men do lives after them
the good is oft interred with their bones"
Willy Shaky.

 

[Croc411]

But if existence is endless, this would happen surely.

IF our time dimension is infinite and IF complex structures can form out of nothing due to random fluctuations, then maybe yes. But those are BIG IF's IMO.

I would rather put my money on the universe being appropriately large or that there is a multiverse, these could accomplish the same.

 

[Croc411]

We must distinguish between what death feels like and what dying feels like.
Dying may be extremely unpleasant.

Yeah, and this might be an example where our sophisticated medical technology is not necessarily a good thing. It can delay the inevitable a lot.

Before my grandmother passed away a few years ago at age 92, she went through 2 full days of agony (at least her body showed the signs, I don't know how much consciousness was left in her).

They gave her painkillers of course, but I guess when multiple internal organs slowly cease working nothing short of general anesthesia really helps. And they won't do that.

I plan to dodge that when it's my turn.

 

[marplots]

Yeah, and this might be an example where our sophisticated medical technology is not necessarily a good thing. It can delay the inevitable a lot.

Before my grandmother passed away a few years ago at age 92, she went through 2 full days of agony (at least her body showed the signs, I don't know how much consciousness was left in her).

They gave her painkillers of course, but I guess when multiple internal organs slowly cease working nothing short of general anesthesia really helps. And they won't do that.

I plan to dodge that when it's my turn.

It's hard to say. When the only thing left to eat are the moldy crusts of life's bread, I might give them a go.

 

[Bill Thompson 75]

In your mind what it is like to be dead?

Someone opens up your skull and takes your brain out.
They liquify your brain in a blender and put it back into your skull.
What you feel then is what it is like to be dead.

 

[Lord Muck oGentry]

It's like not being dead.

I expect you're right about that.

But what does your original question mean?

Are you asking What is it to be dead?? If so, you probably don't need to be told the answer. You already know how to use the word dead.
Or are you asking What is it for a living person to be dead?? No answer is possible: the question is nonsense.

Or are you asking a different question?

 

[dafydd]

Punshhh seems to have abandoned his own thread.

 

[Lord Muck oGentry]

Punshhh seems to have abandoned his own thread.

Apologies to you, dafydd. My last post was addressed to Punshhh, not to you.

 

[dafydd]

Apologies to you, dafydd. My last post was addressed to Punshhh, not to you.

No apology needed. I was just wondering where punshhh is and why he started this thread.

 

[Brian-M]

"Death" is now considered to be when brain activity ceases.

In some cases this has been known to happen when the subject is very much alive.

There are many politicians who are living proof of this. Let's hope that one day a cure will be found.

 

[punshhh]

Why? And how? Even assuming (incorrectly) that existence is endless?

I wouldn't have put incorrectly here, we are talking hypotheticals.

What possible set of circumstances could possibly result in all the correct molecules forming together to exactly reproduce a specific brain complete with memories at time of death, along with a viable functional body?

I presumed it would be at the time of birth not death. You would be born just like you were born in your current life.

I don't mean just because it's absurdly incredibly unlikely, or even because infinity doesn't necessarily mean that all possibilities eventuate, but how would it be physically possible for all the molecules to just assemble that way?

By being born into a reality. I disagree with what you say about infinity, if its possible it will occur infinite times.

What kind of environment would allow this, other than a new body being born with identical genes and living an exactly identical life... and presumably dying again? But in that case you don't get to continue living. You still die at the same point, or at best die at a slightly later point in time (with your maximum possible life expectancy being the limit for this kind of life "extension")?

Ah looks like you considered being born. After your next life presumably you would be born again and again until you could somehow escape the wheel of rebirth. Sounds like Buddhism.

 

[punshhh]

It's not "like" anything, because it isn't anything. It's like asking me my thoughts on the content of a perfect vacuum. There's nothing to describe, it's simply an absence of life. The philosophical part of my brain isn't scared of being dead for this reason, but the evolutionarily programmed part is still saying I need to get lots of stuff done first, like sleep with lots of attractive girls, and then maybe have some kids and teach them how to hunt and forge basic tools.

Wouldn't you still have regrets however philosophical your view?

 

[punshhh]

Interesting. Can you share those reasons?

I regard being alive as a great privilege, as such I treat it with reverence and gratitude in respect of what ever mechanism produced it.

 

[punshhh]

I think you will find that atheists in general are reconciled, while many religious people simply can't accept death, they must imagine they will live forever in some form.

Yes, but when you say reconciled is that just a resigned acceptance?

After all one is referring to an eternity of non existence, waiting just around the corner.

 

[punshhh]

.
Nothing that is "you" exists past death. Your components do, and become components of other things as they disintegrate. But those daisies your corpse is pushing up aren't "you".
You are gone.
Forever.

For yourself it is absolutely nothing, as though nothing ever existed. A quite chilled state I suppose.

 

[punshhh]

.
With any luck at all.
The long disintegration of the body and the mind due to the numerous diseases, and mental failings are awful.

I know this only too well, my father is struggling with it now. Hopefully it will end peacefully.

 

[punshhh]

We must distinguish between what death feels like and what dying feels like.
Dying may be extremely unpleasant.

Death probably feels a lot like your sofa feels to your television.

In that case why did existence even bother to exist, if its only to condemn the forms which fleetingly exist to an eternity of oblivion.

 

[punshhh]

A good friend of mine dropped down stone dead two weeks ago. It was hard to lose him but rather that than see him suffer with some awful disease. Where is his ''forever'' now punshhh? He wasn't famous so when the last person who knew him dies, he will be really gone, forever.

Is this sad?

I shed a tear when someone I know dies.

 

[punshhh]

Someone opens up your skull and takes your brain out.
They liquify your brain in a blender and put it back into your skull.
What you feel then is what it is like to be dead.

Do you know how it feels Bill?

 

[punshhh]

But what does your original question mean?

Its about an issue which we will all have to face sooner or later, but about which very little is said.

Are you asking What is it to be dead?? If so, you probably don't need to be told the answer. You already know how to use the word dead.
Or are you asking What is it for a living person to be dead?? No answer is possible: the question is nonsense.

Yes you have pointed out an important distinction here. But you say an answer has been given, I see no answer anywhere in the thread. Apart from what can be supposed from a scientific analysis of the experience of being alive.

Or are you asking a different question?

It is a philosophical question and will lead to more questions and hopefully will hold a mirror up to ourselves.