\nlife vs. death is weird because although the endpoints are well-defined the transition between them is not; even the fact that we have a particular category of\u00a0\u201cbrain dead\u201d is a bit of a giveaway there, but it\u2019s fractal because the line between brain alive and brain dead is also unclear when you zoom in.
someone might forget your name or even forget their own name and while they\u2019re obviously not dead \u2013 you\u2019re having a normal conversation with them! \u2013 clearly a part of them is already gone, and more parts will follow.
It’s weird because I’ve both gotten amnesia from head trauma before (it works exactly like on soap operas, it’s infuriatingly dumb) \u2013 where my essential self was unchanged but I lost all narrative connection to my previous life \u2013 and had this recent personality change where I retain full continuity but I’m a fundamentally different person.
I’d say honestly the second, more recent one is closer to a death
"}