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Eternal oblivion (also referred to as non-existence or nothingness) is the philosophical, religious, or scientific concept of one's consciousness forever ceasing upon death. Pamela Heath and Jon Klimo write that this concept is mostly associated with religious skepticism, secular humanism, nihilism, agnosticism, and atheism. According to most modern neuroscience theories of consciousness, the brain is the basis of subjectivity, agency, self-awareness, and awareness of the surrounding nature. When brain death occurs, all brain activity forever ceases.
Many and neurophilosophy, such as Daniel Dennett, believe that consciousness is dependent upon the functioning of the brain and death is a cessation of consciousness. Scientific research has discovered that some areas of the brain, like the reticular activating system or the thalamus, appear to be necessary for consciousness because dysfunction of or damage to these structures causes a loss of consciousness. Through a naturalist analysis of the mind, it is regarded as being dependent on the brain, as shown from the various effects of brain damage. Quoting neuroscientist Sam Harris ( video ).
The other opinion about death is that it is oblivion, the complete cessation of consciousness, not only unable to feel but a complete lack of awareness, like a person in a deep, dreamless sleep. Socrates says that even this oblivion does not frighten him very much, because while he would be unaware, he would correspondingly be free from any pain or suffering. Socrates stated that not even the great King of Persia could say that he ever rested so soundly and peacefully as he did in a dreamless sleep.
Cicero, writing three centuries later in his treatise On Old Age, in the voice of Cato the Elder, similarly discussed the prospects of death, frequently referring to the works of earlier Greek writers. Cicero also concluded that death was either a continuation of consciousness or cessation of it, and that if consciousness continues in some form, there is no reason to fear death; while if it is in fact eternal oblivion, he will be free of all worldly miseries, in which case he should also not be deeply troubled by death. Similar thoughts about death were expressed by the Roman Republic poet and Philosophy Lucretius in his first-century BC Didacticism poem De rerum natura and by the ancient Greek philosophy Epicurus in his Letter to Menoeceus, in which he writes:
Paraphrasing philosopher Paul Edwards, Keith Augustine and Yonatan Fishman state that "the greater the damage to the brain, the greater the corresponding damage to the mind. The natural extrapolation from this pattern is all too clear – obliterate brain functioning altogether, and mental functioning too will cease." The Myth of an Afterlife, Michael Martin and Keith Augustine, Rowman and Littlefield Publishers, 2015, p. 206. Psychologist Steven Pinker and physicist Sean Carroll assert that death is equivalent to eternal oblivion, as science finds no mechanism to continue consciousness after death.
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