Never had a general anaesthetic thus far (fortunately) but I have had two dreamless sleeps when I swear I just closed my eyes and opened them a moment later, yet 6 or so hours had passed! No experience of being asleep at all. I always imagine death to be like that sort of sleep... but without the waking-up part.
An animal is not "technically dead" if it turns out to still be alive later. The proper term for that would be "incorrectly identified as dead but actually alive, with such faint life signs that we couldn't find them." "Dead" is permanent: That's what the bloody word means! In a human or any other warm-blooded animal, a scientifically sensible but not easily-applied definition of death is "irreversible degradation of the synapses so that cognition can never be resumed." These days they can keep a body "alive" for a long time even though the brain is too badly damaged to ever function again, in order to harvest organs, or simply to create the illusion that Mommy is just sleeping and hasn't abandoned you. But to call that body a "living person" is an affront to law, reason and common courtesy. I deliberately left out the cold-blooded vertebrates with their tiny forebrains, and all of the lower animals. Nobody seems to care whether a seriously injured spider that isn't moving is really dead--much less a starfish or a sponge--so I'm not going to be the one to start that discussion. Please Register or Log in to view the hidden image! Indeed, all mammals need sleep. It is during the REM (rapid eye movement) period of sleep that our brain organizes and catalogs the things we observed during the day, and collates them with the memories and concepts that are already there. It's been quite reasonably suggested that the discovery of the technology of controlled fire caused a quantum increase in the scope and sophistication of human culture. Fire tended to keep the predators away so we could sleep longer! The expansion of daily REM sleep, which is now longer than any other mammal or bird, made us smarter. The domestication of dogs, who could be trusted to keep even the largest, nastiest predators at bay until the barking woke us up so we could grab our clubs and spears, allowed us to sleep even longer. So if you woke up feeling like a really intelligent organism, thank your dog. Please Register or Log in to view the hidden image! Going back to 1850 (the California Gold Rush, when the U.S. dollar was at its historical high point), the value of two cents then is about half a buck today.
FR, since I Registered and began Posting on this Forum, I have discovered that I am, more often than not, nothing unless I am wrong. My closing remark could, I must admit, be considered as somewhat sarcastically obsequious, but honestly, I was just trying to be a little humorous. I could have or would have closed by stating : Note to all! These are the opinions of a bald, ugly, short Hungarian, whom, it seems, is never anything but wrong. So, take my position or opinion as you wish! FR, from everything that I have experienced on this Forum - that may have only incited some to decry that I was wrong about those statements, also. Thank you kindly for pointing out the historical accounting error in my humorous remark. I also hope that you can distinguish between the humorous parts and the serious parts (if any!?) of this Post. At any rate, FR, at least I have given you something to possibly laugh at - you are not expected to, nor do you have to, agree with any of it.
Which makes you a unique and very valuable member. None of the rest of us are ever wrong. Then I guess that means you are actually a tall, handsome, long-haired Brazilian. Of course! Just havin' a little fun. I did get a good laugh. But as a teacher, I just don't see anything wrong with using any situation as an excuse to give people information. A lot of people assume that inflation has always been so high that something that cost a dollar 200 years ago would cost five thousand dollars today, when the current price would really be only about $25. There was actually considerable deflation up to the Civil War. They've seen the German postage stamps of the 1930s, denominated in billions of deutschemarks, and that makes them assume that inflation of that magnitude happens all the time. It doesn't! The winners of WWI made it our goal to completely disgrace Germany and destroy its economy--we even ripped off all their patents! So when the Great Depression happened, the Germans suffered more than anybody.
Science has no idea what consciousness or the mind is. Is consciousness a function of the brain alone or is it something that can exist without the brain? What if there is something about the structure of matter than we don't yet understand and that gives rise to consciousness and the "self". Science (and especially biological science) cannot yet explain consciousness and reincarnation and I do believe in reincarnation. I believe that when this body dies I will be reborn in a new body and will be conscious and alive once again.
I believe sleep disproves evolution: a sleeping animal must be the easiest prey. Should there be such a thing as evolution then I also believe evolution will produce animals that do not sleep, like ants. Please Register or Log in to view the hidden image!
Sleep for the most part is related to daytime/night time cycles, some animals hunt during the day and others forage under the cover of night. If they are better adapted for one, then they sleep during the other. There is of course the exception with cat's, they tend to be at rest for the most part until they find something to stalk/hunt, they do this to conserve energy between meals as they can exert a lot of energy during chases, if they didn't have any spare energy then their chase would be short lived with their prey getting away. (which means they wouldn't eat, to gain enery etc.) Sleep therefore is about synergy.
The OP bases itself on the assumption that the self is reincarnated in some sense. Working off a personal belief could lead one to any kind of bizarre conclusion. But when you work on the more sensible assertion that we don't, then it becomes difficult to compare the two because sleep always ends. Death has a beginning, but unlike everything else it has no end.
If we're defining death not just as the permanent cessation of biological function, but the permanent cessation of individual experience, then it is an end-point, not a beginning. To say that someone who has died is dead forever is a nonsensical statement, because life is state of being, but death is not. In other words, there is something that it is like to be alive, but there isn't anything that it is like to be dead. If there was, it wouldn't be death. Not as so defined, anyway.
Sleep is certainly not forever, and so my point is only that I can't see how sleep can be likened to death. The rest is just semantics really because I'm sure either one of us could find other ways to differentiate the two.
