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nervous system & body

Learning about the body and it's functions, and that it could theoretically, sustain life, or, a beating heart, for long periods of time, with machines, I thought was particularly interesting. It's interesting that our bodies, and our hearts, and our brains- such improbable assemblies- come together, create what we call life, but... that it's not an indefinite life, as no one has lived forever. There's some kind of timer... something that has a certain amount of life defined, a certain amount of time, which a person has to use these body parts and remain alive, after which, the body, the brain, and the heart, naturally fails them. It's frightening that our bodies can't naturally sustain themselves forever- that our physical self isn't invincible in this way. Our spinal cord and brain.. in all of their abilities, and functions, controls so much. It's interesting the way we've evolved- our design, or story up to this point- that our nervous system plays such a huge effect in who we are, as humans, and on a more individual level. It's interesting that our brain has such a tremendous amount of seemingly improbable assemblies, and that an injury to our spinal cord can result in a kind of paralysis, or quadriplegia. It's interesting just how seemingly destructable we are... that we can walk around, and function, and our systems are responsible and in control.. until they're not. For having appeared to have changed over time a great deal, into who we are now, it's interesting to think about why, over time, we haven't adapted something more- some kind of back-up system, to our brains and to our spinal cord- like saving something on a disk, rather than just on the hard drive- to keep us better functioning and able as a species, despite accidents or mutations..

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