Death and Modern Science: The Hidden Connections, Profound Implications, and a Question of Hope

Abstract

The purpose of this paper is to provide a few examples of how several branches of science have interesting and even profound implications for our understanding of death. The method will be to analyze some established principles from biology, astrophysics, mathematics and quantum mechanics. There are four results: First, the death and biodegradable bodies of Earth’s animals played a significant role in the evolution of the human species. In this ironic sense, we owe our lives to death. Second, unnatural death can be frame-dependent. A person can be alive and well in his proper reference frame despite having died an unnatural death in an external frame. Third, if the multiverse theory is not valid, then the death of the universe is inevitable and irreversible. This is tantamount to the law of increasing entropy. Fourth, events do not go out of existence with the passage of time. Rather, what is lost to the past is the high probability associated with detecting present events. In other words, the high amplitude of present events washes out detection of past events like the daytime sun washes out the stars. Since the unconscious mind does not detect energetic sensory data, it may be timeless as many have suggested. If so, it need not depend upon high amplitude events, thus giving some credence to paranormal psychology. Moreover, the death of the organic brain in its inertial frame of reference may not be synchronized with the death of the unconscious, thus admitting to something like an afterlife. In conclusion, scientists should conduct further research as a follow-up to this early paper in order to gain a deeper understanding of death, an event that is inevitable for us all and has profound consequences.