Objective observers care only about the type of a person and whether it's
instantiated, not about the fate of its instances (because, frankly, they're not
aware of the difference between the type and an instance). But since I know
better,
I would be sad about dead instances. The point is whether I'm sad/upset or not
about a fact not does change that fact.
Stathis:
Most people would be upset by the prospect of their death, and if
death is interruption of brain processes, they should be upset by
this. However, it is your definition of death which is at issue. If
someone chose to objectively define death as replacement of a certain
proportion of the matter in a person's brain, what argument would you
use against this definition?
I would suggest focusing on definition of life first. Only then one can have a
decent chance at getting the correct definition of death (absence of life).
Life is not just a collection of atoms arranged into a special pattern. It is, at
least, a spatiotemporal process guided by a special pattern. Also, it is not
information about the pattern (data), but the process itself (activity).
It's probably useful to think about life in terms of layers of abstraction. There's
an implementation layer starting with atom layer, then neuron layer, and so on,
that makes life possible, yet is not life itself. Life happens at the
spatiotemporal "process layer" which means that details of implementation layer
beneath process layer are not important as long as its function is preserved.
Suppose you want to watch a movie. It doesn't really matter if the movie is fed by
DVD player to CRT screen or by VHS player to LCD. This is implementation layer and
it is almost orthogonal to the process layer of you reacting emotionally to the
movie. Unsurprisingly, you and I are still *alive* even though our implementation
layers undergo gradual replacement. I'm still alive because my process layer hasn't
been disturbed by the changes at implementation layers (although it could, of
course).
This is just an outline of what life is physically. Defining death would be
slightly more complicated. :-)
H.
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