Link - total body transplant

Dr_Manhattan

Amazing video. This is really "out there" medical research that actually worked, and not surprisingly, was closed down.

http://www.vbs.tv/newsroom/dr-white-s-total-body-transplant-2-of-2--2

Amazing video. This is really "out there" medical research that actually worked, and not surprisingly, was closed down.

http://www.vbs.tv/newsroom/dr-white-s-total-body-transplant-2-of-2--2

Cryonics involves killing a brain (or preparing a dead brain) in such a way as to maximize the chances that some future technology can extract its instantiated mind.

[edit to take away the quibble about definitions]

Cryonics keeps open the possibilities both of uploading and robust repair scenarios. Assuming that it will play out one way or the other is unnecessarily specific for a belief about the future. There may be e.g. cultural or contractual reasons to repair people instead of extracting the information to instantiate on a digital substrate.

Incidentally, I suspect that this was downvoted for starting an argument over definitions. (The downvotes weren't mine, FYI.)

2TheOtherDave15y

I haven't claimed that the person dies; I've claimed the brain does. Sure, perhaps future technology will include the ability to reconstruct the person from the dead cells of the person's brain, in which case the person survives... no argument. And in that case cryonics is, as you say, a form of survival. But the cells remain dead, as does the organ they comprise. And the comment I was responding to was talking about ways to allow a brain to survive without the body's blood flow, not about people. And, sure, it's possible that future technology will include the ability to reconstruct a living brain from the brain's dead cells. Actually, I suspect that will be much easier than reconstructing the person. And it's possible that it will include the ability to repair the cells themselves and restore them to their former state. Personally, I would say it's still a dead brain, much as my ability to reforge a broken sword doesn't prevent the sword from breaking. But that's a purely semantic question... the reality is the same whether we call the brain "dead" or not. So, OK, what term would you prefer I use? (Resting? Stunned? Pining for the fjords? Passed on? This brain is no more! It has ceased to be! It is an ex-brain!) Or do you object to using any terminology to differentiate a post-cryonics brain from a pre-the-event-that-ordinarily-entails-a-funeral brain?