Knew somebody would have it.
Posted on 05/23/2024 6:02:30 AM PDT by Red Badger
Are head transplants really part of the medicine of the future – and do we want them to be?
On May 21, startup BrainBridge unveiled its concept for a world-first head transplant system, promising to combine artificial intelligence with the latest in robotics to literally remove a human head and put it on a new body. If everything works as intended, once the head is in place, the person will apparently be able to get up and go about the rest of their life with a brand-new set of healthy limbs and organs. Sounds fantastical? Right now, science says it probably still is.
BrainBridge project lead Hasham Al-Ghaili, who revealed the plans for the transplant machine in a series of posts on Instagram, told Longevity.Technology, “The goal of our technology is to push the boundaries of what is possible in medical science and provide innovative solutions for those battling life-threatening conditions. Our technology promises to open doors to lifesaving treatments that were unimaginable just a few years ago.”
In its introductory video, the company claims that BrainBridge’s use of robotics will help speed the transplant process up – you can’t leave a head without a body for too long and expect it to survive. Two robots will simultaneously operate on the donor and the recipient, in an environment where the conditions can be tweaked precisely, without having to worry about making it comfortable for human medical staff.
Donor bodies would come from young, otherwise healthy people who have experienced brain death; heads from people with diseases like cancer or neurodegenerative conditions, or injuries that have led to paralysis, could then be swapped onto the younger, healthy donor body for a new lease on life.
BrainBridge says its process will preserve the recipient’s “consciousness, memories, and cognitive abilities.” It will still be you, just on a new scaffold.
They also make the bold claim that “the brain is capable of lasting several hundred years” according to their estimates, meaning that swapping out a tired body for a newer model could be the gateway to extending a human life beyond our current wildest dreams – if you take their word for it, that is.
But the big question remains: can they really do it?
Is a head transplant a realistic possibility? Many have been fascinated by the idea of transplanting a human brain or entire head. Movies from classic comedy-horror Young Frankenstein to the bang-up-to-date Poor Things have dealt with the subject, and it crops up in dozens of books – not all of them fictional. It was inevitable, really, that scientists would begin to explore the possibilities in the real world too.
One such pioneer was Robert J. White, a surgeon whose revolutionary techniques birthed a new standard in neurosurgery, but who was also perennially fascinated with what he called the “total body transplant”. White performed a number of experimental operations on monkeys. Although they could survive the initial procedure, the technology hadn’t yet caught up to enable the reattachment of all the myriad nerves in the spinal cord, so moving their new bodies was impossible.
More recently, in 2017, controversial neurosurgeon Sergio Canavero claimed to have performed a “successful” head transplant on a human – the only catch being that both humans involved in this procedure were deceased before the surgery even began. Still, Canavero was back in 2023 claiming that a living brain transplant was next on his list.
Canvero’s proposed technique has at least one commonality with BrainBridge’s futuristic surgery setup, in that they both propose to use polyethylene glycol (PEG) to re-fuse severed nerves. There’s some research to suggest that PEG could have utility in the surgical treatment of peripheral nerve injuries, but that’s a little different from successfully stitching back together an entire nervous system.
Even if we can, does that mean we should? The potential pitfalls with human head transplants don’t end there. We’ve already touched on the need for speed and keeping conditions right to stop the tissue from beginning to degenerate, and if BrainBridge is able to build a machine that works as they intend, they seem confident that they can address these issues. We’ve got robots doing surgery in space now, so having two automatons working on human bodies at the same time isn’t so farfetched, right?
But the biggest question marks hang over what might happen once a person wakes up from a head transplant. BrainBridge claims their system would keep people’s consciousness intact – but there’s still so much we’ve yet to understand about the very nature of consciousness. It’s a similar story with memory, with so many theories about how it works and no clear consensus.
Other technical questions include the possibility of immune rejection, and pain control following such a traumatic surgical procedure. And if head transplants ever did become a realistic possibility, there would be serious ethical discussions that would need to be had.
“The idea that you can just take someone’s head and just plop it on someone else’s body and it will be the same person is a theory. We take it for granted that it’s true but it’s certainly not taken for granted in other cultures or historically,” said Paul Root Wolpe, a professor of bioethics at Emory University, in a 2017 statement.
It’s not for us to say whether or not BrainBridge’s ambitious technology will ever come to fruition. Many ideas that were once thought restricted to science fiction have become a reality. But right now, a human head transplant is not a realistic possibility – and if it were, it’s not clear whether that would actually be a good thing.
"'In many ways, it's like a dozen unlikely, ridiculous claims bundled into one convenient package," neuroscientist and honorary research fellow at the Cardiff University Psychology School Dr Dean Burnett told MailOnline.
Still, it appears that Robert J. White was eerily prescient in his thinking. According to historian Brandy Shillace, author of a recent book on his life and work, White “remained convinced that the surgery would be performed, somewhere, someday, and that his work would be exonerated.”
“They also make the bold claim that “the brain is capable of lasting several hundred years”. Well, unless you’re a Biden fan, or suffer from “wokeness”, or leftist liberal beliefs. Otherwise you’re good to go a couple hundred at least. Now all I need to find is an Adonis body.
Soon, ‘Body-Snatching’ will be a Real thing!..................
Que Dr. McCoy replacing Spock’s brain.
Knew somebody would have it.
The lecture enthralled the doctor and he eagerly awaited the opportunity to question the lecturer after he finished his presentation. At the end of the lecture, the speaker agreed to field a few questions from the audience. The doctor was able to ask him if the science behind organ transplants had advanced to the point they could consider brain transplants.
The lecturer answered quite positively that brain transplants were already possible but very expensive. He estimated the cost to transplant the brain of a surgeon into the average human would cost about $100,000 a pound. The doctor asked about the cost of a less lofty profession such as a lawyer. The speaker said that would still be quite costly at between $50,000 and $75,000 a pound. The doctor lowered his sights further and asked the estimate for a corporate CEO brain. The speaker said this might be more practical at about $25,000 to $30,000 a pound. The doctor said that was still high; what if the person seeking the transplant just wanted to become a Democrat politician?
The speaker’s face grimaced as he revealed that could easily cost over a million dollars. The doctor asked why when all these other professions cost less. The speaker asked; do you know how many Democrat politicians it takes to get a pound of brains?
There will be many failures as they attempt to “perfect” their procedure. Unfortunate humans will die. Countless dogs will be put through extreme suffering.
Assume it’s possible, and actually gets done. The unfortunate human will regain consciousness to extreme intense pain, and an overwhelming feeling of complete disorientation.
The sutures will cause pain. The nerve junctions will cause pain. The brain will be faced with an entirely new set of sensations received from the new organs. The person will be unable to handle this. The experimenters will have their torture victim very very heavily sedated and on strong painkillers. They will allow their victim to regain consciousness, and make a video of him saying a few words. The ghouls will then declare their experiment to be an overwhelming success.
The question we’ll soon have to face is, how far our we willing to compromise our own moral conscience to allow things like this to progress.
For example, let’s say that Donald Trump comes out one day and says “I’ve been diagnosed with terminal pancreatic cancer, and been given 4 months to live. I know this is devastating to many of you, because you know that I, alone, am the only person who can save this country. Therefore, I have decided to undergo the BrainBridge process to save my life, and call on you for your full support.”
If the Donald Trump analogy makes people mad, then what about if it was your mother, or father? How many would go along?
We’ll just use “Abby Normal’s Brain”
(sorry couldn’t post image)
LOL - beat me by 2 minutes!!
It will be so expensive, only the super-rich can afford it................
Just make sure you don’t get the Abby Normal one.
Biden’s new body would still shit its pants.
Big Mike could finally get the ghettopotomaus body he always wanted.
Biden places order any head will do it has to be better.
i’d put my 60 year old head on a 30 year old body...
“Hair-Raising Human Head Transplant Machine Concept Unveiled By Startup – But Is It Realistic?”
i heard that the first part of that particular transplant surgery was the really easy part, but that the second part was the real bitch kitty ...
A guest came in on the Bob Hope show. Bob said he looked great. They guest said they jacked up his toupee and trucked in a new body.
“Donor bodies would come from young, otherwise healthy people who have experienced brain death;”
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Hurry up and make sure all your kiddies have “I’m a donor” card on their persons, just in case some ethical doctor needs to declare them brain dead so they can use their body for a worthy client.
Biden should be first.
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