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Exceptionally Preserved 2,600-Year-Old Brain Found
TrueSatan writes with this quote from Discovery News:
"A human skull dated to about 2,684 years ago with an 'exceptionally preserved' human brain still inside of it was recently discovered in a waterlogged U.K. pit, according to a new Journal of Archaeological Science study. The brain is the oldest known intact human brain from Europe and Asia, according to the authors, who also believe it's one of the best-preserved ancient brains in the world (PDF). 'The early Iron Age skull belonged to a man, probably in his thirties,' according to lead author Sonia O'Connor. 'Cause of death is rarely possible to determine in archaeological remains, but in this case, damage to the neck vertebrae is consistent with a hanging.'"
Something that occasionally bothers me is the question of how much a brain works after it is dead. We don't really understand consciousness so we don't know how much of the brain is responsible for it. In fact the only way we know (suspect?) our fellow humans are conscious is they tell us - ok I'm wondering in to Turing test territory which isn't where I want to go.
Suppose we were to hit this old intact brain with a jolt of electricity - would it feel it? Would it be conscious at some level for a brief moment but completely unable to inform us? Would it suffer a brief horrible dream? It makes me feel like I want to have my brain completely obliterated somehow when I die so I can be sure there is nothing left that is capable of suffering.
I often don't like the choices people make, but I like the fact that people make choices. That's why I'm a conservative.
The brain being intact at a gross level doesn't mean that it's intact at a cellular level...so I doubt the network topology of the brain is still in place. Besides, the brain has state which decays without active maintenance, so network topology alone is not sufficient.
My God can beat up your God. Just kidding...don't take offense. I know there's no God.
He might be unfit for THAT society. Most modern civilized people would be considered unfit in a lot of societies 3000 years ago.
The Kruger Dunning explains most post on
None. After the brain is deprived of oxygen for a few minutes the cells die. Neurons have the highest cellular metabolic rate, among those the retina has the very very highest (you'll go blind before you go brain dead from general oxygen deprivation to the brain, or from sugar deprivation such as low sugar for a diabetic). The synapses of your brain won't fire without energy, so deprive them of that energy (sugar and oxygen) and they stop firing, thus you stop thinking. Low levels will cause your thoughts to generally slow down and scrable (hazy drunk like feeling). Generally the brain stem is the last to go as it has the highest suppy of oxgen. This means that you will first go blind, then lose reasoning skills and higher brain level skills, then motor skills and finally lose the ability for your lungs and heart to operate. Much better than the other way around I think, except for the blind part. By the time your heart stops you wont be really sentient anymore.
This is all of course assuming your brain doesn't go into some kinda of synaptic crash before hand. (yea, its possible for your brain to just trigger a self destruct and die, cases of people who died from a fall that wouldn't have killed them, a shot that wouldn't have killed them, etc, the trauma was too much for their brain, so all those "if you die in the matrix you die out here" type of sci-fi thing are actually true)