This procedure has been done on monkeys in the 70's. It might not give this man any control over his new body, but at least he won't suffocate to death from spinal muscular atrophy.
Lots of such qualifying details are not uttered, because they are assumed according to certain maxims which govern constructive conversation among rational people.
Oh, it won't be a black market. There will be lobbying and laws will be passed authorising the preservation, transport and sale of war casualties from "rogue states".
Are you extrapolating from something that did happen with other organ transplants, or just assuming it would happen even though it didn't happen with other organ transplants?
BTW, one big problem for a rich old guy is, it's very likely that their head is the weakest link, not the body. If the body has cancer which has metastasized, the head is not very useful. If the body has some other problem, it could probably be better solved by transplanting a single organ. And most of all, a rich guy who had all the means to care for his body is very likely to have preserved it in a nice shape but his memory is failing them, etc. etc. An old brain in a new body doesn't sound that great, really, not as a means for life extension. "Just for fun" might interest some generally healthy aging people, on the other hand; these people would be heavily stigmatized though, in all likelihood, even if they managed to get the body and were willing to take all the risks.
I think it could be very useful in rare cases is the upshot.
Let's say I'm going to live until 50 (head+body), but then get a replacement 20 year old body when I'm 40. What happens to me? Can I make it to a higher age now? Will my mind eventually just turn into mush anyway?
Since the idea is to save the patient from degenerative disease, recovering non-autonomous functions might not be a requirement - he only need a healthy body for now. It's still hard, but more feasible I guess.
I think the comparable market for organs would actually be more popular. I'm sure most wealthy villains would take a functional kidney over a body they can't control.
Wouldn't that be every health insurance scheme, ever? What the poor old lack in wealth, they usually make up for with political power concentrated over decades so even in cases of single payer healthcare, the young will always subsidize the old.
A very disturbing movie and not just because of the inevitable gruesomeness of it. The complacency with which everyone in the film ultimately acts is just as horrifying as its premise.
Wouldn't be surprised if a lot of that went to insurance....as in malpractice insurance, even though I'm sure the recipient will be signing various wavers
What we need is brain transplants. Then when we've perfected that, we need to secretly abduct various politicians and other powerful people, and replace their brains with those of better people who volunteer to take their places. Then, since the brain transplant won't be obvious, we can have a better society without these sociopaths ruining it for us.
You have to fix people in general to do that. Brain transplanting in that scenario won't actually work. Hell, many scientist don't want to do politics.
I completely disagree. You don't need a scientist to take over a politician's body, just some normal, reasonably-intelligent person who's willing to listen to others and isn't evil or corrupt.
The problem is that politicians tend to be sociopaths, who as a group comprise probably about 5% of the entire population. The stupid ones go to jail, but the smart ones become politicians, CEOs, etc., because they can outcompete regular people since they don't have a conscience to hinder them. So if you replace their brains with those of non-sociopathic people (the other 95% of the population), things should improve.
Near the end of the video it is suggested that the head transplanted onto a younger body would rejuvenate and hence it would make sense to cultivate clones of yourself and periodically transplant your head onto them to live eternally. This is both horrifying and hard to believe.
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[ 2.8 ms ] story [ 103 ms ] threadhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hippocratic_Oath
BTW, one big problem for a rich old guy is, it's very likely that their head is the weakest link, not the body. If the body has cancer which has metastasized, the head is not very useful. If the body has some other problem, it could probably be better solved by transplanting a single organ. And most of all, a rich guy who had all the means to care for his body is very likely to have preserved it in a nice shape but his memory is failing them, etc. etc. An old brain in a new body doesn't sound that great, really, not as a means for life extension. "Just for fun" might interest some generally healthy aging people, on the other hand; these people would be heavily stigmatized though, in all likelihood, even if they managed to get the body and were willing to take all the risks.
I think it could be very useful in rare cases is the upshot.
When rich guys are saying something, others should listen, even though they are wrong
- http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2014/01/140117-trans...
- http://www.sierraclub.org/trade/trans-pacific-partnership
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Organ_trade#Illegal_organ_trad...
A very disturbing movie and not just because of the inevitable gruesomeness of it. The complacency with which everyone in the film ultimately acts is just as horrifying as its premise.
So I'm kind of waiting for Nixon's head to be attached to a robot body now.
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0052646/
Aside that I hope this can save the Russian computer scientist.
"Kotaku UK published a comprehensive breakdown on this conspiracy theory"
The Doctor firmly denied this- and is without a doubt, a real neurosurgeon.
The problem is that politicians tend to be sociopaths, who as a group comprise probably about 5% of the entire population. The stupid ones go to jail, but the smart ones become politicians, CEOs, etc., because they can outcompete regular people since they don't have a conscience to hinder them. So if you replace their brains with those of non-sociopathic people (the other 95% of the population), things should improve.
Professor Dowell's Head
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Professor_Dowell%27s_Head