信息理論性死亡

信息理論性死亡意指儲存在腦部的訊息被摧毀的程度嚴重，乃至於在理論上回復原本人格已是不可能的狀況。

信息理論性死亡是為了提供一種無論未來的醫療技術多麼進步，都能用來定義死亡的定義。因為在現代，關於如何讀取或恢復大腦的訊息儲存架構的細節都尚未有定義，信息理論性死亡這個定義在主流醫學上是不實際的。^[1]不過用於期待未來科技的人體冷凍技術上時，這個定義就很重要。

信息理論性死亡也被稱為「不可逆死亡的終極定義」^[2]，和因為「腦部的損傷已經造成其內儲存的訊息永遠地消失」而又被稱作「絕對的不可逆死亡」。^[3]

信息理論性死亡在主流的生物倫理學、生物學哲學和宗教界探討死亡時都有提到。^{[3][4][5][6][7][8][9]} ，並在2007年的《新聞周刊》文章中探討心搏停止議題時有提及。^[10]

參考

1. Sebastian Seung. Connectome: How the Brain's Wiring Makes Us Who We Are. Houghton Mifflin. 2012: 271. ISBN 9780547678597. Merkle's definition of death is of more philosophical than practical importance. To apply it, we need to know exactly how memories, personality, and other aspects of personal identity are stored in the brain.
2. Cerullo MA. The Ethics of Exponential Life Extension Through Brain Preservation (PDF). Journal of Evolution and Technology. March 2016, 26 (1): 94–105 [2019-01-16]. （原始內容存檔 (PDF)於2020-06-08）. This is known as the information-theoretic definition of death and appears to be the ultimate definition of irreversible death.
3. Doyle DJ. Life, Death and Brain Death: A Critical Examination. Ethics in Biology, Engineering and Medicine. 2011, 2 (1): 11–31. doi:10.1615/EthicsBiologyEngMed.2011003293. In the later case, sometimes called 「absolutely irreversible death」 or 「information theoretic death」 destruction of the brain has occurred to such an extreme that any information it may have ever held is irrevocably lost for all eternity.
4. Whetstine L, Streat S, Darwin M, Crippen D. Review: Pro/con ethics debate: When is dead really dead?. Critical Care. October 2005, 9 (6): 538–542. PMC 1414041 . PMID 16356234. doi:10.1186/cc3894. This approach to defining death, which is rooted not in relative, changing technology and vitalistic worldviews, but rather in the fundamentals of physical law, is known as the information theoretic criterion of death.
5. Crippen DW, Whetstine LM. Ethics review: Dark angels – the problem of death in intensive care. Critical Care. February 2007, 11 (1): 202. PMC 2151911 . PMID 17254317. doi:10.1186/cc5138. Cryptographer and nanotechnologist Ralph Merkle noted, 「The difference between information theoretic death and clinical death is as great as the difference between turning off a computer and dissolving that computer in acid.
6. Ali Afzali M. Brain death from the perspective of shia and modern medicine (PDF). Journal of Mazandaran University of Medical Sciences. December 2013, 24 (113): 221–233 [2019-01-16]. （原始內容存檔 (PDF)於2018-10-17）. The theory of information-theoretical death was introduced, stating that the human brain cell arrangement at one point in time loses its stored information and experiences brain death (translate.reference.com)
7. Wowk B. Special Section. "Death by Neurologic Criteria 1968-2014: Changing Interpretations": The future of death. Journal of Critical Care. December 2014, 29 (6): 1111–1113. PMID 25194588. doi:10.1016/j.jcrc.2014.08.006. One possible answer is a definition of death that is independent of technology, no matter how advanced. Such a definition is the Information Theoretic Criterion for Death.
8. David Crippen. The problem of death in critical care medicine. Singh, Mamta B; Bhatia, Rohit B (編). Emergencies in Neurology. Byword Books. 2011: 396–404 [2019-01-16]. ISBN 978-8181930675. （原始內容存檔於2019-07-19）. Any meaningful definition of death is then suggested by an information-theoretic criterion. In other words, does that patient contain enough undamaged structure (information) to infer his healthy working state from his current non-functional one?
9. Hughes JJ. The Death of Death. Machado C, Shewmon A (編). Brain Death and Disorders of Consciousness, Advances in Experimental Medicine and Biology, Volume 550. Springer. 2004: 79–88. ISBN 978-0306484827. We will soon need to scrap the brain death standard in favor of a much more tentative, probabilistic, information-theoretic understanding of death as the loss of identity-critical information.
10. Newsweek Staff. Back to Life: The Science of Reviving the Dead. Newsweek. 22 July 2007 [2019-01-16]. （原始內容存檔於2020-11-08）. (Ralph Merkle) has used this idea to popularize a fourth definition of death: "information-theoretic" death, the point at which the brain has succumbed to the pull of entropy and the mind can no longer be reconstituted. Only then, he says, are you really and truly dead.