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Neuroscientists have recorded the activity of a dying human brain

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Re: Neuroscientists have recorded the activity of a dying human brain

#171

Post by bumby »

nwatson wrote: post #168
jamcohen wrote: post #55

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I also find comfort in the idea of becoming food after we die. I remember reading somewhere how a beached whale in the arctic can be a life-saving windfall for the scavengers there. Helped me see the positive in something I’d always seen as purely tragic.

I find little comfort in it. By the time your 120-200 imperial pounds becomes food, you will have shat another 25,000 pounds that has gone into a sewer or elsewhere and fed some bacteria down the line.

I mean, isn't that just a demonstration of how there's interconnection between it all?

Re: Neuroscientists have recorded the activity of a dying human brain

#172

Post by bumby »

chaoticmass wrote: post #146
schodi wrote: post #22

I have that inner emotion, when thinking about death. It makes me very uneasy. When We die, if there is nothing coming, how is it to not exist? I mean, what is it like? Pure black and emptyness? I then comfort myself into thinking, in the end it comes down to energy. Like being part of that endless stream of energy that became matter and probably will return to energy somewhere in infinty. Or do we maybe just restart…

I have this weird thought from time to time-- maybe it's dumb, but it nags at me. Think of any time when you've been unconscious, like when under anesthesia, or fainting, or knocked out for some other reason. You experience everything leading up to the event that knocks you out, but the only reason you can recall any of it is because you did eventually wake up and regain consciousness. Your experience of your current…

Are you asking how or why? If it's the latter, one thought is there doesn't need to be any grand design, but merely that consciousness gives some sort of evolutionary advantage. It reminds me of Matthew Walker's potential hypothesis that sleep is our default state. So why would wakefulness exist? Conceivably because it confers some evolutionary advantage. Consciousness is sometimes referred to in the same terms of "wakefulness"

Re: Neuroscientists have recorded the activity of a dying human brain

#173

Post by bigyikes »

User23 wrote: post #154
hutzlibu wrote: post #136

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"It could just as easily be near-random memory access, similar to when we dream" Is it established that dreaming is near-random memory access? I thought the whole process of dreaming is quite far from being understood, so wouldn't it be a stretch to call it near-random, when in reality there might be pattern, but just one we do not understand yet?

Dreams are deeply weird and interesting. I was really disappointed when I took psychology that the dogma was they’re just synaptic static that maybe has something to do with long term memory formation. I’ve had deeply odd dreams, where I’ve been told things I have no way of knowing. I’ve also had dreams where I’m near certain I was communicating with a being that was not merely a figment of my imagination. I’ve had m…

> Once I had a dream that was so lucid it felt more real than being awake.

Have you ever taken DMT? Not to imply that what you experienced was physiologically related to the drug. It’s just that being “more real” than reality is often how intense psychedelic experiences are described.

Re: Neuroscientists have recorded the activity of a dying human brain

#174

Post by nefitty »

sockpuppet_12 wrote: post #166
nefitty wrote: post #104

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Same here. It's helpful insofar as any story can be helpful in the face of what we have to go through. Interestingly enough, although my wife shares the same beliefs as me in terms of religion and God, the stories that resonate most with her from that show were the evocative ones about God and heaven. She told me that the science-based ones barely register to her at all, and almost not at all on an emotional level. A…

Most people think of heaven when it comes to the Bible's view of life after death, but it speaks more about a resurrection from the dead for the vast majority of people who die, to live forever on a paradise Earth. There is something in us that makes us yearn for more than the short lives we have now (hardly anybody would choose to die if they had good health under normal circumstances), so these do resonate with us…

It's a real danger that we'll have to deal with on a sociological level soon. Atheism is on the rise. I'm not versed in atheism as it occurs in countries other than in the US, but it seems like we'll see new types of problems that are not immediately apparent. That's the double-edged sword of rationalism. Truth and reason above all... But it's vital to remember that we're squishy and mushy and spiritual and emotional beings. It seems like it will be a lot of fun to be involved in media as it comes to deal with that shift more and more. What stories make the most sense, while still holding truth at the center? What do people need?

I'm reminded of the prototypical Alan Watts lectures. He might be out of fashion at the moment, but maybe his work will one day again be a little flicker in the cave for us to reach for, down the line.

Re: Neuroscientists have recorded the activity of a dying human brain

#175

Post by sn41 »

SketchySeaBeast wrote: post #115
DanHulton wrote: post #51

There's an awful lot of uncritical supposition in this article. Sure, the brain MAY be recalling all the best moments of your life before you die, but there's zero evidence that that's what those recordings mean, aside from whimsy and hopefulness. It could just as easily be near-random memory access, similar to when we dream, and that, to me, sounds a lot more likely. I know I'm the big grumpy curmudgeon here, but I…

Yeah, I didn't see any evidence in that article that it was positive - for all we know it it's the brain serving up a collection of every time you told the waiter "you too" right after they said "enjoy your meal".

yeah... I never get over how stupid I feel when I say that. I keep doing it, especially when I am already slightly flustered.

Re: Neuroscientists have recorded the activity of a dying human brain

#176

Post by peter303 »

giantg2 wrote: post #3

Has there really never been anyone who died while hooked up to an EEG? That seems unlikely to me. Edit: liars liars pants on fire. It has been done before. https://www.sciencealert.com/brain-activity-recorded-as-much...

The 1980s movie Brainstorm had that plot. Only instead of a primitive EEG, it was helmet that recorded replayable brain experiences. It hypothesized near-death and early-post death.

Ironically the movie's star Natalie Wood (of West Side Story and Miracle on 34th Street) dies toward the end of the filming (drowning). The movie was a little choppy because they released it without a few intended scenes.

Re: Neuroscientists have recorded the activity of a dying human brain

#177

Post by tomjakubowski »

nefitty wrote: post #174
sockpuppet_12 wrote: post #166

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Most people think of heaven when it comes to the Bible's view of life after death, but it speaks more about a resurrection from the dead for the vast majority of people who die, to live forever on a paradise Earth. There is something in us that makes us yearn for more than the short lives we have now (hardly anybody would choose to die if they had good health under normal circumstances), so these do resonate with us…

It's a real danger that we'll have to deal with on a sociological level soon. Atheism is on the rise. I'm not versed in atheism as it occurs in countries other than in the US, but it seems like we'll see new types of problems that are not immediately apparent. That's the double-edged sword of rationalism. Truth and reason above all... But it's vital to remember that we're squishy and mushy and spiritual and emotional…

if you didn't know, an Alan Watts lecture plays a part in puzzle video game The Witness.

Re: Neuroscientists have recorded the activity of a dying human brain

#178

Post by hotsauceror »

giantg2 wrote: post #11
dkural wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Read the article.

I did. I find this unbelievable and was asking if this is really true, or if this is just the first time someone wanted to publish it. "This unexpected event allowed the scientists to record the activity of a dying human brain for the first time ever."

Unless they want to be terribly pedantic about the fact that these were EEGs, there have been several studies of brain electrical activity during human death. Jens. Drier has done several. Search for “spreading terminal depolarization” or “anoxic depolarization”. They’ve reported a “point of no return” where enough neurons are unable to maintain their transmembrane electrical gradients that the brain can no longer function.

Here’s a link to one of the Drier et al. papers.

https://www.researchgate.net/publication/322479687_Terminal_...

Re: Neuroscientists have recorded the activity of a dying human brain

#179

Post by stubish »

DanHulton wrote: post #51

There's an awful lot of uncritical supposition in this article. Sure, the brain MAY be recalling all the best moments of your life before you die, but there's zero evidence that that's what those recordings mean, aside from whimsy and hopefulness. It could just as easily be near-random memory access, similar to when we dream, and that, to me, sounds a lot more likely. I know I'm the big grumpy curmudgeon here, but I…

To me the 'and be programmed to orchestrate the whole ordeal' is the key bit of uncritical supposition. As if our brains have evolved/were created to ease the transition to death. I don't know if the actual study concluded this, or if it was added as editorial.

Re: Neuroscientists have recorded the activity of a dying human brain

#180

Post by nefitty »

tomjakubowski wrote: post #177
nefitty wrote: post #174

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's a real danger that we'll have to deal with on a sociological level soon. Atheism is on the rise. I'm not versed in atheism as it occurs in countries other than in the US, but it seems like we'll see new types of problems that are not immediately apparent. That's the double-edged sword of rationalism. Truth and reason above all... But it's vital to remember that we're squishy and mushy and spiritual and emotional…

if you didn't know, an Alan Watts lecture plays a part in puzzle video game The Witness.

Sweet! I'll check it out. He also shows up in the movie Her... Maybe prescient haha
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