At what moment are you dead

你在哪個時刻算是真正死去

來源視頻

For as far back as we can trace our existence,

humans have been fascinated ?with death and resurrection.

Nearly every religion in the world ?has some interpretation of them,

and from our earliest myths

to the latest cinematic blockbusters, the dead keep coming back.

But is resurrection really possible?

And what is the actual difference between ?a living creature and a dead body, anyway?

To understand what death is, ?we need to understand what life is.

從人類誕生開始，

人類一直對死亡與復(fù)活著迷

幾乎每個宗教都對它們有著不同的見解

從早期的神話故事

到最新的電影大片中， 死者在不斷的復(fù)活

但是復(fù)活真的可能嗎

生物的生與死的區(qū)別到底在哪里

要理解什么是死 我們必須先理解什么是生

One ancient theory ?was an idea called vitalism,

which claimed ?that living things were unique

because they were filled ?with a special substance, or energy,

that was the essence of life.

Whether it was called qi,

lifeblood,

or humors,

the belief in such an essence ?was common throughout the world,

and still persists ?in the stories of creatures

who can somehow drain life from others,

or some form of magical sources ?that can replenish it.

有一個被稱為“活力論”的古老的理論

它認為生物體是獨特的

因為生物充滿特別的物質(zhì)或能量

這種物質(zhì)就是生物的本質(zhì)

不管此物質(zhì)被稱之為氣

生命脈

或是幽默

世界各地普遍深信這種物資的存在

而且不時可以聽到關(guān)于它們

可以從別的生物吸取生命的故事

或是某種神奇的原料可以補充它們

Vitalism began to fade ?in the Western world

following the Scientific Revolution ?in the 17th century.

René Descartes advanced the notion

that the human body was essentially ?no different from any other machine,

brought to life by a divinely created soul located in the brain's pineal gland.

And in 1907, Dr. Duncan McDougall ?even claimed that the soul had mass,

weighing patients immediately before and after death in an attempt to prove it.

Though his experiments were discredited, much like the rest of vitalism,

traces of his theory ?still come up in popular culture.

在17世紀的科學(xué)革命后

“活力論”在西方世界開始失去市場

瑞內(nèi)?笛卡爾（René Descartes） 讓這種理念更進一步

他主張人類的身體基本上 和任何機器并無兩樣

由位于腦內(nèi)的松果體內(nèi)的 神所創(chuàng)造的靈魂而有生命

在1907年當(dāng)肯?邁竇噶兒醫(yī)生 甚至主張靈魂是有質(zhì)量的

他以病人在死亡前后的所稱的重量來證明

雖然他的實驗，和其他活力理論一樣， 沒有被承認

我們?nèi)阅茉诹餍形幕姓业狡淅碚摰嫩欅E。

But where do all these discredited ?theories leave us?

What we now know is ?that life is not contained

in some magical substance or spark,

but within the ongoing ?biological processes themselves.

And to understand these processes,

we need to zoom down ?to the level of our individual cells.

Inside each of these cells,

chemical reactions ?are constantly occurring,

powered by the glucose and oxygen that our bodies convert

into the energy-carrying molecule known as ATP.

Cells use this energy for everything from repair

to growth

to reproduction.

Not only does it take a lot of energy ?to make the necessary molecules,

but it takes even more ?to get them where they need to be.

除了這些不被接受的理論， 那我們還有什么其他的解釋嗎？

我們現(xiàn)在知道的是

生命不是被包覆在某種神奇的物資 或火花內(nèi)

而是不斷的生物過程本身

要了解這些過程

我們必須放大到我們的個體細胞上

在每一個細胞里

化學(xué)反應(yīng)不斷地在發(fā)生

由我們身體轉(zhuǎn)化葡萄糖和氧氣

成為攜帶能量的分子，也叫ATP

細胞用這個能量來做修補，

成長，

繁殖等

制造必須的分子需要消耗許多的能量

把這些分子送到需要的地方消耗更多的能量

The universal phenomenon of entropy

means that molecules will tend ?towards diffusing randomly,

moving from areas ?of high concentration to low concentration,

or even breaking apart ?into smaller molecules and atoms.

So cells must constantly keep ?entropy in check

by using energy to maintain ?their molecules

in the very complicated formations

necessary for biological functions to occur.

The breaking down of these arrangements ?when the entire cell succumbs to entropy

is what eventually results in death.

This is the reason organisms ?can't be simply sparked back to life

once they've already died.

宇宙中的熵（entropy）現(xiàn)象

表明分子有隨機擴散的趨勢

它們會從分子集中的地方 擴散到分子少的地方

或者甚至分裂成更小的分子和原子

所以細胞必須不斷的保持著‘熵’

用能量來維持它們的分子們

以非常復(fù)雜的構(gòu)造

使生物功能得以發(fā)生

當(dāng)細胞屈服于‘熵’，這些機制開始瓦解

最后導(dǎo)致生物體死亡

這也是一旦生命體死亡

就不能起死回生的原因

We can pump air into someone's lungs,

but it won't do much good

if the many other processes involved in the respiratory cycle

are no longer functioning.

Similarly, the electric shock from a defibrillator

doesn't jump-start an inanimate heart,

but resynchronizes the muscle cells ?in an abnormally beating heart

so they regain their normal rhythm.

This can prevent a person from dying, ?but it won't raise a dead body,

or a monster sewn together ?from dead bodies.

So it would seem ?that all our various medical miracles

can delay or prevent death but not reverse it.

我們可以將空氣注入一個人的肺

但如果呼吸系統(tǒng)中的其他過程都失效了

注入再多的空氣

那也是無濟于事

同樣的，除顫器的電擊

也無法重啟一個死亡的心臟

它只能使心跳異常的心臟 將肌肉細胞重新同步化

讓它恢復(fù)正常的律動

這是可以防止一個人的死亡， 但它不會使人起死回生

更不用說由死尸縫起來的怪物

所以盡管我們有各種醫(yī)學(xué)奇跡

可以延遲或預(yù)防死亡 但不能轉(zhuǎn)死為生

But that's not as simple as it sounds

because constant advancements ?in technology and medicine

have resulted in diagnoses such as coma,

describing potentially ?reversible conditions,

under which people would have previously ?been considered dead.

In the future, the point of no return ?may be pushed even further.

Some animals are known ?to extend their lifespans

or survive extreme conditions

by slowing down their biological processes

to the point where ?they are virtually paused.

And research into cryonics ?hopes to achieve the same

by freezing dying people ?and reviving them later

when newer technology ?is able to help them.

但也不能一概而論

因為科技和醫(yī)藥的不斷進步

可將如昏迷的診斷 為有反轉(zhuǎn)的可能性

這些在以前人們會認為已經(jīng)死亡了

在未來，回生乏力的關(guān)鍵點 可能可再向后推

據(jù)我們所知，有些動物可以借由

放慢他們的生物過程，甚至到停止作用

而增長壽命或在極為惡劣的情況下存活

人體冷凍學(xué)的研究就是 希望可以達到這個結(jié)果

借由將瀕死者冷凍

當(dāng)更新的科技可以幫助他們的時候 再將他們復(fù)活

See, if the cells are frozen, ?there's very little molecular movement,

and diffusion practically stops.

Even if all of a person's cellular ?processes had already broken down,

this could still conceivably be reversed ?by a swarm of nanobots,

moving all the molecules ?back to their proper positions,

and injecting all of the cells ?with ATP at the same time,

presumably causing the body ?to simply pick up where it left off.

So if we think of life ?not as some magical spark,

but a state of incredibly complex, self-perpetuating organization,

death is just ?the process of increasing entropy

that destroys this fragile balance.

And the point at which ?someone is completely dead

turns out not to be a fixed constant,

but simply a matter ?of how much of this entropy

we're currently capable of reversing.

比如說，當(dāng)細胞冷凍以后， 就幾乎沒有分子活動

擴散也基本停止了

即便一個人的細胞流程已經(jīng)瓦解了

想象中仍然可以借由一群 納米機器人而反轉(zhuǎn)的

將所有分子放回它們的適當(dāng)位置

也同時將ATP注射在細胞里

這也許可以讓生命體可以重新運作

所以如果我們認為生命不是 某種神奇的火花

而是一種無法想象的復(fù)雜， 和自我延續(xù)的組織的狀態(tài)

死亡只是熵增過程，

破壞了這個脆弱的平衡的過程

當(dāng)一個人完全死亡的關(guān)鍵點

不再是一個固定常數(shù)

而是由我們現(xiàn)在能夠逆轉(zhuǎn)這個‘熵’的程度