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Vladimir_Nesov comments on Link - total body transplant - Less Wrong Discussion

1 Post author: Dr_Manhattan 14 January 2011 04:41AM

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Comment author: Vladimir_Nesov 14 January 2011 11:20:17AM *  3 points [-]

"It's entirely misleading to suggest that a head transplant or a brain transplant is actually really still connected in anything except in terms of blood stream to the body to which it has been transplanted. It's not controlling or relating to that body in any other sort of way." ~Dr. Steven Rose

If we attach adequate brain-computer interface to the brain, a person can continue living, even without having control over the brain-sustaining contraption (human body or something else). (Assuming the brain can be made conscious/awake.)

Comment author: Document 14 January 2011 04:00:46PM 1 point [-]

Are there BCIs that can pass signals to the brain as well as reading them from it?

Comment author: JenniferRM 15 January 2011 12:40:29AM *  1 point [-]

There exist implants that interface with nervous tissue for input purposes either via nerves or sometimes lately as "cortical implants". This stuff comes up around visual prosthetics and cochlear implants.

My understanding is that this is an area of active research for helping people with sensory disabilities, and that the issues that tend to come up have to do with input resolution that its "good enough" to get along, and (especially with vision) the decrease in expected lifespan of individual neurons and nervous tissue after being put in close proximity to electronics.

Sharp, hot, electrical stuff is frequently "ouchy"...

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