What Does Artificial Life Tell Us About Death?
International Journal of Artificial Life Research, 2 (3):
1--5 (2011)http://arxiv.org/abs/0906.2824.Abstract
This paper discusses how concepts developed within
artificial life (ALife) can help demystify the notion
of death. This is relevant because sooner or later we
will all die; death affects us all. Studying the
properties of living systems independently of their
substrate, ALife describes life as a type of
organization. Thus, death entails the loss of that
organization. Within this perspective, different
notions of death are derived from different notions of
life. Also, the relationship between life and mind and
the implications of death to the mind are discussed. A
criterium is proposed in which the value of life
depends on its uniqueness, i.e. a living system is more
valuable if it is harder to replace. However, this does
not imply that death in replaceable living systems is
unproblematic. This is decided on whether there is harm
to the system produced by death. The paper concludes
with speculations about how the notion of death could
be shaped in the future.
