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Why Death?
We can ask the question, why is there birth, aging, and death?
What benefits does that process confer upon living creatures?
Human attitudes toward death as the final stage of the process of living are irrational and fear-based. Also, we think we are the reason the Universe itself exists, so why the insult of death to individuals?
As a neuroscientist, I hypothesize this is because conditions on Earth within which organisms must live are not now, nor have they ever been static. The life process which includes death allows for organisms to change as our external environment changes. Those changes are implemented in changes to organism DNA and its epigenome, which are passed from generation to generation, allowing organism groups, not individuals, to survive over the long term of time.
If individual organisms never died, what mechanism would allow them to change physiologically and anatomically in sensitive response to changing external conditions?
NOTES
TDHawkes, Ph.D., Human Physiology, University of Oregon 2012.
National Research Council Post-doctoral Fellowship: 2014–2016
Mind and Life Varela Grant Fellowship, 2007–2012
Researchgate: https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Teresa-Hawkes-2
Medium: https://medium.com/@teresadlonghawkes
Substack: https://tdhawkes.substack.com/
The Way of the Wanderer, Book 1: The Hidden Land Kindle Edition, Amazon.com
