
This is what happens after you die - otoolep
http://mosaicscience.com/story/what-happens-after-you-die
======
hyperliner
One of the things that I have heard before is that funeral homes sell these
new "sealed" caskets. Now, the problem with sealing caskets is that the gases
generated through the process of decay of the body increase the pressure
inside the casket over time, and many of them have been known to blow up in a
rather noisy and (bad choice of words but I can't think of another adjective)
awesome way.

People, tell your families not to spend money on these caskets, unless this
blow-up action is part of your plan for leaving the world, one last final act!
(I am not judging! Just informing).

~~~
mod
If I were making those caskets, I'd just put a one-way release valve on it.

I think it's interesting that reactions can produce so much pressure, given
that all the components "fit" into the space prior.

~~~
WalterBright
Consider how a rocket engine works.

~~~
mod
I don't actually know, but most engines are using gas from outside of the fuel
source. I suppose perhaps they use a stored gas, given that they'd need it in
space, or perhaps couldn't "grab" enough for the huge amount of fuel they're
using.

That said I'm aware of plenty of situations where similar things occur, I
still find it very interesting.

~~~
mikeash
Rockets don't use anything from outside. Otherwise they wouldn't work in space
too well, since it's a vacuum.

~~~
mod
Perhaps you didn't read my full comment.

~~~
mikeash
Maybe I didn't understand it, but I read the whole thing. "I suppose perhaps"
is pretty far from a statement of certainty, if that's the part you think I
missed.

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tzs
For a more varied look at what can happen after you die, I recommend the book
"Stiff: The Curious Lives of Human Cadavers" by Mary Roach [1].

I think my favorite is to donate your body to a body farm [2].

[1] [http://www.amazon.com/Stiff-Curious-Lives-Human-
Cadavers/dp/...](http://www.amazon.com/Stiff-Curious-Lives-Human-
Cadavers/dp/0393324826)

[2]
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Body_farm](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Body_farm)

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0xdeadbeefbabe
If you are into decay I'd also like to recommend the Rodale book of
composting[0], you'll be making great compost soon enough (weather you read it
or not).

It isn't sensational, which can be nice. They approach it from a gardeners
perspective while still mentioning things like how blood has a high nitrogen
content.

[0] [http://amzn.com/0878579915](http://amzn.com/0878579915)

------
zoidb
> raising the inside temperature by more than 10C (18F)

This article is copied from [http://mosaicscience.com/story/what-happens-
after-you-die](http://mosaicscience.com/story/what-happens-after-you-die)
licensed under creative commons with some small edits like the funny
conversion above :)

~~~
sctb
Thanks! We updated the URL from
[http://www.bbc.com/future/story/20150508-what-happens-
after-...](http://www.bbc.com/future/story/20150508-what-happens-after-we-
die).

------
adeptus
Warning: Misleading title. It is talking about what happens to your physical
body, something everybody already knows what happens after you die, though
perhaps not to that level of detail. NOTHING TO SEE HERE, move along now.

------
feld
Where's part 2 where they cover the afterlife?

~~~
amelius
There is none. And death doesn't exist either (it is just an abstraction made
up by humans). You are part of the universe, and as such will remain alive.
When you "die" (note the quotes), the universe loses a bit of consciousness,
but there is plenty of it remaining.

~~~
Stratoscope
I don't know about made-up abstractions, but when your heart stops beating,
your lungs stop breathing, your neurons stop firing, and all of your bodily
tissues start to rot away... Surely there must be _something_ different about
being in that state?

~~~
perfTerm
I think he (she?) is trying to explain zen in a confident manner which makes
it sound silly (it is!) and a bit off.

~~~
amelius
It is just reasoning in favor of Occam's razor. It doesn't mean it is true
(people here are sufficiently smart to figure that out for themselves).
However, reasoning against the razor, now that's what I call silly!

~~~
whybroke
If "alive" is some set of complex chemical reactions a system is experiencing
then when they stop, that system is not alive by any standard definition of
the word. "dead" would be a term applied to a pile of stuff that used to be
doing the "alive" thing but isn't anymore. The pile keeps the term "dead"
until the pile has reshuffled much of its original mater. For some reason
living things face the Ship of Theseus paradox, and dead piles don't.

(I almost think I could make a board game from the above.)

~~~
amelius
The paradox is easily resolved if you consider everything to be part of the
same object (i.e., the universe).

~~~
whybroke
But when we use the word "fox" it does not include the ground under the
animal. And if I look at the moon and say "that is part of a fox" I am using
the language incorrectly.

Of course the word "alive" is ambiguously defined semantics applying to a
loose hodgepodge of phenomenon (is a virus alive?). It may be convenient to
use, just like the term "sunrise" is useful. But looking for the real
phenomenon behind it is like looking for the caloric fluid or the land north
of the north pole, they are words for ideas invented long before we knew much
about anything.

Your notion too might be useful, that everything is part of a single grouping
like the observable universe. But I think we'd be in error to suppose there is
something real to either of these groupings beyond being useful names.

