The Brain Dies in Stages
“The body tries to stay alive. It’s not so… It’s natural. Maybe you’ll see it now. First the human brain dies, then the animal brain, then the lizard brain. Like your Rm, only backward. The lizard brain tries to its very last bit of energy to keep things going. I’ve seen it. Some kind of desire. It’s a real force. Life wants to live. But eventually a link breaks. The energy stops getting to where it needs to be. The last ATP gets used. Then we die. Our bodies return to earth, go back to being soil. A natural cycle. So…” She looked up at him. “So what? Why the horror? What are we?”
Kim Stanley Robinson, 2312 (2012-05-22)
Notes
From higher functions to lower functions, de-evolving.
Watson’s reading
Tags generated by IBM Watson from the text. Percentages are its confidence.
Categories
Concepts
Keywords
lizard brain, Brain Dies, higher functions, link breaks, real force, bodies return, human brain, animal brain, natural cycle, energy, Rm, ATP