Survival

I had a fascinating conversation with my chiropractor yesterday. As conversations do, it had wound its way through several topics until he mentioned an incident in which a stuntman had died while working on a film - a helicopter crashed slightly differently than was planned and the rotor chopped him in two. "At least it would've been instantaneous," I mentioned. "Yeah, as instantaneous as instantaneous is," the chiropractor replied. Seems we take a little while to die, even from the most horrendous injuries. I'd always assumed that stories of peoples lips moving after their head had been guillotined were just urban myths, but it appears that's not so unlikely. Even in a case of decapitation it's thought that the person will live for at least 10-15 seconds before blood pressure is totally lost and the brain ceases to function. A little disturbing, no? Or have you not bothered to imagine what it would be like to gaze at your own lifeless, headless corpse spurting blood towards you? Fortunately it's not likely that you'd be in any pain (extreme shock would take care of that), and vision would be one of the first senses to give out. Life is in the blood, yes, but that blood needs to be reaching the brain - anything else is fairly incidental in the short term. We discovered thousands of years ago that we don't need limbs to survive. Now it seems that we don't need a stomach or heart either, as long as artificial alternatives are provided. Just a brain. Delightful news, I'm sure, for all the utilitarians out there. Finally, a way to strip off all gratuitous excess and sensual experience; only the bare necessary remaining - pure thought. And yes, I agree that only the brain is needful for survival. But the rest is needful for living.