"Information-Theoretic Death". www.merkle.com. A person is dead according to the information-theoretic criterion if the structures that encode memory and personality have been so disrupted that it is no longer possible in principle to recover them. If inference of the state of memory and personality are feasible in principle, and therefore restoration to an appropriate functional state is likewise feasible in principle, then the person is not dead. ↑ Whetstine, L; Streat, S; Darwin, M; Crippen, D (2005).