Human head transplantation could become a reality in two years
88 replies, posted
Can't wait to see 90 year olds running around with bodies of teenagers.
I legitimately wonder how they'd feel if they did something wrong on the first go of something like this. It'd be like replacing the CPU in your computer only to realize you've absolutely shorted every other component in the process, it's absolutely devastating when your PC wont boot after something like that, so I'm imagining the horror of it happening to a real human being. It's most likely on another scale from breaking your computer I guess.
I can see this becoming highly useful if you throw in a little cloning. Lost every limb on your body? No problem! Just clone a new body.
[editline]27th February 2015[/editline]
(It's probably not that easy)
[QUOTE=Lord of Ears;47223610]finally i can be a true lady[/QUOTE]
i didn't even think about this, truly you may soon be able to touch your real vagina
[QUOTE=Limed00d;47223982](It's probably not that easy)[/QUOTE]
[I]yet[/I]
This is definitely a step up, but I wonder if they'd be able to implement a version of the process that allows the head to be transplanted onto a mechanical frame with life support functions?
[QUOTE=ironman17;47224068]This is definitely a step up, but I wonder if they'd be able to implement a version of the process that allows the head to be transplanted onto a mechanical frame with life support functions?[/QUOTE]
How would that be any better then transplanting onto a new body
Unless you mean as a temporary solution
[QUOTE=ironman17;47224068]This is definitely a step up, but I wonder if they'd be able to implement a version of the process that allows the head to be transplanted onto a mechanical frame with life support functions?[/QUOTE]
That's already being worked on by an international team based in Brazil. The ball at the start of the world cup was kicked off by a dude who was completely paralyzed from the neck down yet he still walked and was able to kick the ball, and actually "feel" it (even though the robot leg hit the ball). That was done by directly interfacing with his brain, so yeah the first steps are definitely (and literally) made.
[editline]27th February 2015[/editline]
The main goal for that team however, is replacing entire limbs to people who lost 'em - á la Deus Ex HR. But there's always spin-off projects with big things like these.
[IMG]http://cdn-parismatch.ladmedia.fr/var/news/storage/images/paris-match/actu/environnement-et-sciences/ce-savant-promet-une-greffe-de-tete-dans-deux-ans-679022/6815894-1-fre-FR/Ce-savant-promet-une-greffe-de-tete-dans-deux-ans_article_landscape_pm_v8.jpg[/IMG]
The doctor in question.
Seriously, he looks like a stereotype evil doctor.
[QUOTE=darth-veger;47224197][IMG]http://cdn-parismatch.ladmedia.fr/var/news/storage/images/paris-match/actu/environnement-et-sciences/ce-savant-promet-une-greffe-de-tete-dans-deux-ans-679022/6815894-1-fre-FR/Ce-savant-promet-une-greffe-de-tete-dans-deux-ans_article_landscape_pm_v8.jpg[/IMG]
The doctor in question.
Seriously, he looks like a stereotype evil doctor.[/QUOTE]
Is that Sheldon on the plate?
[QUOTE=WhyNott;47224188]How would that be any better then transplanting onto a new body
Unless you mean as a temporary solution[/QUOTE]
Yeah, a sort of "transitional support frame" so that the subject can survive as a head on a dishwasher, until the vat-monkeys have grown a new torso for the subject to be integrated with. For those situations when the subject can't wait 6 months for a new torso when mass organ failure would take them sooner.
That said, however, military applications for transitional support frames would probably include enabling crippled veterans to be used as a sort of "pilot core" for advanced tanks, planes, possibly even some form of heavy exoskeleton. A bit like how the Protoss designed their Dragoons in StarCraft, only a bit more grounded.
Either way, support frames would probably just be for the transition phase until there are frame models that are superior to the human body in all respects, which would take a LONG time.
[QUOTE=Lord of Ears;47223610]finally i can be a true lady[/QUOTE]
I always wondered about the minor physiological or just skin changes and how long it would take for the head to go through them if someone were to transplant their head on another gender's body, essentially hormones on tap.
I am by no means an expert on medical subjects but I did research the current state of human limb transplantation for a project I was working on. From that perspective I'd call that two-year claim sensationalist bullshit. In theory, maybe, but never in actuality, there are so many unresolved issues with even the most basic transplantation procedures, either this statement makes the bold assumption that they will just go away in two years' time or this miracle doctor with the queer interest in photo shooting sessions that portray him as some sort of mysterious disembodied human head science man has found a solution for all complications at once, all in the course of his research and we will be swapping limps with casual ease in two years, thanks to him.
Or he just wants to draw a little attention, get a little funding. This is a scientists bread and butter and scientists are, after all, salespeople. They want to sell the promise of possible innovations that largely exist in theory alone. I mean, it'd be really cool if I was wrong on this but I strongly expect that even if he gets sufficient funding, there's no way we'll have head transplants in just two years, if ever.
There might be an attempt, if he ever gets around the human rights aspect of it all, but I think it would be far from perfect. Just to put things into perspective, at the current state of medicine, you can be glad if you get back your own pinky that you lost to a hedge trimmer and retain full functionality without any complications at all. That first human head transplant recipient might live, but in a coma or wheelchair bound at best and have a dramatically shortened live expectancy, I'd be surprised if such a patient would live a full year or more.
[QUOTE=massaki;47223971]I legitimately wonder how they'd feel if they did something wrong on the first go of something like this. It'd be like replacing the CPU in your computer only to realize you've absolutely shorted every other component in the process, it's absolutely devastating when your PC wont boot after something like that, so I'm imagining the horror of it happening to a real human being. It's most likely on another scale from breaking your computer I guess.[/QUOTE]
I can definitely imagine the first test subject waking up from his year-long coma, surrounded by cameras, then immediately [I]screaming[/I] his brand new lungs out and dying
[QUOTE=ZombieDawgs;47224227]Is that Sheldon on the plate?[/QUOTE]
Yes. He volunteered.
This guy is greatly overstating the progress of medicine though, if we had the ability to repair spinal damage and nerve damage on this scale it would be more beneficial to use it curing paralysis instead of this. Additionally the cited monkey study was a failure not because they chose not to reconnect nerves they could not reconnect the nerves with the technology of the time
[QUOTE=darth-veger;47224197][IMG]http://cdn-parismatch.ladmedia.fr/var/news/storage/images/paris-match/actu/environnement-et-sciences/ce-savant-promet-une-greffe-de-tete-dans-deux-ans-679022/6815894-1-fre-FR/Ce-savant-promet-une-greffe-de-tete-dans-deux-ans_article_landscape_pm_v8.jpg[/IMG]
The doctor in question.
Seriously, he looks like a stereotype evil doctor.[/QUOTE]
[QUOTE=ZombieDawgs;47224227]Is that Sheldon on the plate?[/QUOTE]
It looks like Mike from breaking bad is going to eat Sheldon's head :v: .
Great, ANOTHER cheap movie becoming reality!
[video=youtube;U492MO2DzVY]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U492MO2DzVY[/video]
[QUOTE=ironman17;47224275]Yeah, a sort of "transitional support frame" so that the subject can survive as a head on a dishwasher, until the vat-monkeys have grown a new torso for the subject to be integrated with. For those situations when the subject can't wait 6 months for a new torso when mass organ failure would take them sooner.
That said, however, military applications for transitional support frames would probably include enabling crippled veterans to be used as a sort of "pilot core" for advanced tanks, planes, possibly even some form of heavy exoskeleton. A bit like how the Protoss designed their Dragoons in StarCraft, only a bit more grounded.
Either way, support frames would probably just be for the transition phase until there are frame models that are superior to the human body in all respects, which would take a LONG time.[/QUOTE]
W40K Dreadnoughts here we come.
In 50 years we'll have old rich dudes transplant their heads to young bodies for a few million bucks of pocket change.
these medical breakthroughs amaze me with doing stuff i never thought would be possible, makes me wonder what will be the next step after this
The nerve connections working out would be the biggest monkey wrench here as currently, as medical science stands, it's not possible to cure paralysis due to cord damage because of the absence of a means of neural regeneration. This is the biggest hurdle, to get the nerves to reconnect and to make sure that they can work once the connections are bridged. We're a long way off from this, other than the paper described where some chinese scientists apparently succeeded in doing this for a mouse. The procedure will remain a pipe dream unless somebody pioneers neural regrowth.
[QUOTE=Van-man;47224568]W40K Dreadnoughts here we come.[/QUOTE]
Similar principle, maybe. It's that I wouldn't put it past the military to consider the applications the tech could have on the battlefield, which would probably involve reducing tank crew requirements down to 1 if the frame allowed the user to interface with the systems of the tank.
[QUOTE=Axsisel;47223680]Could this develop into a pseudoinmortality with the transplants of an older head into a younger body or both parts would grow up parallel?[/QUOTE]
Well, it wouldn't be immorality for anything, since you're just changing one part to another. Even if they expired at different times, eventually, would be an entirely different thing.
This video explains it pretty well.
[video=youtube;BUl6PooveJE]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BUl6PooveJE[/video]
[QUOTE=ironman17;47224693]Similar principle, maybe. It's that I wouldn't put it past the military to consider the applications the tech could have on the battlefield, which would probably involve reducing tank crew requirements down to 1 if the frame allowed the user to interface with the systems of the tank.[/QUOTE]
Yeah but at that point you'd be able to do it remotely so there would be no need for the head in a tank type stuff.
It'd probably still be a thing because of input lag, though that said it wouldn't matter if the tank pilot had poor reaction times. Unless we find a way to circumvent the oppressive doldrums of the lightspeed limit, input lag will still be a thing.
Imagine this, you are a parent and you lose your child due to some problem with the brain you donated the body for another brain to use. Imagine seeing your child's body with another person's brain, that would be weird on so many levels.
[QUOTE=Orkel;47224608]In 50 years we'll have old rich dudes transplant their heads to young bodies for a few million bucks of pocket change.[/QUOTE]
Likely it'll get cheaper. Immortality from then on out.
I wonder what'll happen when you have an old head on a young body. Will the head eventually (maybe after multiple body swaps over decades) become decrepit?
The stitching two rats together, one old the other young showed the old rat benefited.
Maybe we can extend life long enough to develop other technologies like ensuring the brain doesn't depreciate quality over the decades even after body swaps.
Holy shit this is awesome.
