10 replies to this topic

[kevin]

With the ability to transplant a head onto another body and sustain it,

http://news.bbc.co.u...lth/1263758.stm

how close are we to being able to artificially sustain a brain? How close are we to being able to supply electronic vision, hearing, touch, speech and locomotive ability through the use of neural interfaces? I think I could live with a limited, and maybe even enhanced version of the senses..with upgrade capability! I'm not sure how much the brain depends on the body for it's stability but it seems to me that it's the rest of the body that depends more on the brain.

I'm just wondering if I should be looking at a short term 'freeze the head' cryonics insurance policy. If my body should up and disintegrate, keeping my brain alive and awake, with some ability to control it's environment, is preferable to freezing it, albeit a tad more expensive. I guess I could still get a job though there might be some discrimination against disembodied brains.

Edited by kperrott, 08 March 2003 - 06:45 AM.

[MichaelAnissimov]

I would definitely recommend the head-freezing route for cryonics. If you wanted your original body back, it's likely that the information in your DNA could be used to give you something practically like it. But as for short-term life as a brain attached to primitive prosthetic technologies for a whole body...that's sort of intense, I don't think our homo sapiens minds are wired too well for that sort of thing. People might react by going slightly crazy, (I would rather just get my head frozen solid and "wait") but possibly not. You're pretty brave if you're willing to do it. Depends on what level the technology is at, of course.

[kevin]

I don't think I'm quite ready to trust my survival to the monkey head guys... but in the future it might be more feasible. I'm just crossing my fingers that I might escape getting blown up as I cross the mine fields of the big 'C', Alzheimers etc while I'm waiting...

Let's get this party started!

[Elohim]

This is quite a feat. Granted the monkey is not still alive hopping from tree to tree, but this development could lead to a breakthrough in immortality research. I do not believe they should start on humans any time soon, however.

[kevin]

I had wondered in another thread how close we were to being able to support life to a disembodied head... Here's one more piece of the puzzle...

http://www.eurekaler...rtificial Liver

Edited by kperrott, 25 July 2003 - 10:46 PM.

[kevin]

How would you talk or communicate if you were only a head or a disembodied brain, unablet to vocalize or even gesture? Of course you know the answer already, computers. lol

New research has led to the ability of totally paralyzed ALS patients to communicate with their families through a "Thought-translation device". It was only a matter of time that computers would be trained to recognized brainwave patterns and allow patients locked up in their own bodies a way of communicating with the outside world without even a neural interface. Cool...

the device registers the brain's electrical activity and converts this to symbols on a computer. By making their brains generate different kinds of waves, people can produce different words and sentences.

Link to the full article at BetterHumans.com
"Thought-translation Device" Lets Paralyzed People Communicate Using Brainwaves

Maybe being sans corpus wouldn't be so lonely after all...

[galtsgulch]

Maybe we should start a list of things that a disembodied head could do/enjoy:

Entertainment, learning, Love (okay, maybe not mutual at this point), etc.?

Of course, this technology is old hat, Dr Michael Hfuhruhurr performed the "screw-top" head transplant on a human back in 1983 (See The Man With Two Brains.)

Edited by John Galt, 14 May 2003 - 10:19 PM.

[Lazarus Long]

Maybe we should start a list of things that a disembodied head could do/enjoy:

Entertainment, learning, Love (okay, maybe not mutual at this point), etc.?

How about learning to use a pogo stick?

[kevin]

A pogo stick would be one form of locomotion Lazarus.. maybe a little jarring however... we'd have to add a little more shock absorbing fluid if we were to really use that method..

A better way for a living head to get around would be by using the following technology...

Thought-controlled Wheelchairs Could Roll Out Soon - Betterhumans.com

It's looking better all the time... instead of voluntary euthanasia... maybe a voluntary beheading?

[Lazarus Long]

Kevin, I have always loved the idea that Ann McCaffery proposed of cerebral starships, "That Sing." It seems to me that the limits of adaptation for a self sustaining intelligence is survival, after that its ability to adapt to environment is its paramount demand followed by environmental manipulation, then transport.

Once the severed center of intelligence for a serious thinker is isolated from the body, the conscience will survive as long as its needs are met, senesence prevented and after that the desires rule.

[kevin]

", ereg_replace("
", " ", "

Link:	http://www.betterhum...ID=2003-11-07-5
Date:	11-07-03
Author:	-
Source:	http://www.betterhumans.com
Title:	Brain-machine Interface Set for Testing
Comment:	Just a few steps closer to sloughing off this husk of a body and into my sleek new mazaraaahtay..

")) ?>

---

Brain-machine Interface Set for Testing
Betterhumans Staff
Friday, November 07, 2003, 5:03:01 PM CT
Bionic Technologies
", ereg_replace("
", " ", "

Chipping in: Microelectrode arrays help translate brain activity into physical activity

")) ?>

A US company has announced plans to test a device that would allow paralyzed people to control a computer directly with their brain.

Foxborough, Boston-based Cyberkinetics aims to file a research request with the US Food and Drug Administration by the end of this year.

The first trial would involve five paralyzed people who can't use their hands, says Timothy Surgenor, Cyberkinetics' president and chief executive.

Monkey do, human do

Neural interfaces that translate neuron activity have demonstrated tremendous promise for allowing paralyzed people to do such things as type, operate wheelchairs and operate robotic prosthetics.

The interfaces could also restore movement to existing limbs by bypassing damaged spinal cord areas that prevent brain signals from reaching muscles.

While linking the brain directly with machines was once considered science fiction, advances over the past few years have made it increasingly viable.

Last month, for example, researchers at Duke University in Durham, North Carolina reported that monkeys manipulated a robotic arm with their mind using a neural interface.

Braingate

Cyberkinetics aims to test its Braingate device, which it has already tested in animals.

Four millimeters square, the device contains a 100-microelectrode array that Cyberkinetics gained access to through its 2002 merger with Bionic Technologies of Salt Lake City.

The array is placed into a motor activity area of the brain using a spring-loaded inserter through a small hole in the skull. A connector extends from a user's skull and is attached to a computer cable.

The system detects the firing of neurons and translates this into some action.

Surgenor says that Cyberkinetics will file an FDA Investigational Device Exemption by the end of the year and, with approval, will begin trials early next year and complete them by its end.

The company will report advances and clinical trial plans for Braingate on Sunday in New Orleans at the annual meeting of the Society for Neuroscience.

The company's plans were reported by The Boston Globe.