X-Message-Number: 7143 From: (Kenton E. Sinner) Newsgroups: sci.cryonics Subject: Definitions Date: 16 Nov 1996 03:49:21 GMT Message-ID: <56jdk1$> A lot of argument that I have seen on this group recently seems to be a case of conflicting definitions. Some cryonicists define death as *permanent* cessation of function. So cryonics patients are not really dead. This leads to conflicts with legal definitions and traditional definitions of death since people can't agree on what is and is not permanent. The problem is that if death is defined in this way, we can't say if someone is dead or not because that would require knowing what was going to happen to the person in the future. I suggest the following: that we use the term "dead" to refer to what it traditionally means, which is cessation of function, as in a dead battery, but we sever the implied permanence into a seperate concept. So we will have two concepts to what might happen to a person who suffers severe damage: death and dissolution. Death is the cessation of function, which implies no permanence whatsoever. Dissolution is what happens after death in the absence of intervention, and *is* permenant, since it involves loss of *pattern*. What this means is this: when someone's vital signs stop, as in cases of hypothermia, the person is dead, but may be revived if proper care is given. If proper care is not given, death is followed by dissolution, which cannot be reversed (according to our present understanding, at least). We must not confuse these two concepts, nor allow the general public to equate them. Death is reversible, dissolution is not. On another note, how about this definition of life: Life is a local entropy minimum, whose structure includes mechanisms to maintain its pattern, and possibly propogate or reproduce its information. -- Ken Sinner =*= "Don't blame me, I voted for Kodos!" -- H. Simpson "It ain't what we don't know that gets us into trouble, as much as what we do know that ain't so." -- Will Rogers (I think) =*=*= Please do not send unsolicited marketing email to this account. =*=*= Rate This Message: http://www.cryonet.org/cgi-bin/rate.cgi?msg=7143