My backup plan to save RJ.

[TheoryMan]

http://www.filecabi.net/video/monkey-headtransplant.html

 

I'm serrious... If the body is screwing up why should doctors not be able to remove the heads of brain dead patients and put on healthy heads of people who's brains are still perfect. Wasting a perfectly good body to me seems unethical. The only problem seems to be in severing the spinal cord, which is on the way to being repaired with current research anyway. I'd rather be a quadrapalegic(sp?) than dead... that's for sure. Especially when I'd only have to wait a decade or two for them to finish the technology to give me control of my body.

[Bobster]

Hmmmm, intresting. Well, I'm not a scientist, doctor, w/e here, I don't even consider meself smart but...

 

...wouldnt the body have to be supplied also? I doubt that someone would just give away their body. And if a body was found I'm assuming the person is dead, and that means that the body has died since there was something defective that made it die. Therefore giving a defective body to someone.. would that make them die anyway?

 

And I doubt many peoples would agree to this kind of surgery... I dont think I would, not unless there was a high chance of success. Also doubt that this will be available to poeple in the near future, we will have to wait a little for something like that.

 

But hey, thats just me.... it would be cool though.

[TheoryMan]

I'm talking about using the body of a brain dead person. AKA, they are clinically dead, but their body is kept alive by machines. All the body would need is a functioning head to start working again. If you could successfully match blood type and such, not to mention repair the spinal cord, I'd imagine it would be very possible. If the research does not get bogged down by religious fanatics, they could probably have this in the near future.

[Meliane]

There's no way they could have this in the "near future." Putting a severed head on a beheaded body is crazy. Severing the spinal cord and then realigning all of the neurons (not to mention attaching them together) is not possible. This is just crazy talk. I also didn't like your political stab at religion.

 

But I did like the hilarious mental picture I got of this. Reminds me of all the heads in jars on Futurama. Funny stuff!

[Bobster]

Oh, I guessed I missed that they are brain dead... oops :oops:

 

But yeah in that case there will always be, as you mentioned, religious fenatics and poeple of that sort that will make this very difficult to test or achive.

[TheoryMan]

There's no way they could have this in the "near future." Putting a severed head on a beheaded body is crazy. Severing the spinal cord and then realigning all of the neurons (not to mention attaching them together) is not possible. This is just crazy talk. I also didn't like your political stab at religion.

 

But I did like the hilarious mental picture I got of this. Reminds me of all the heads in jars on Futurama. Funny stuff!

 

I guess "near future" is relative. At the moment they can't reattach the spinal cord, I already said that. I'm saying that repairing the spinal cord is currently under heavy research, and could very well be possible. All they really have proven right now is that they can keep a severed head (monkey) alive. I specifically put that "regligious stab" in there for a reason, and not the one you're probably thinking of. Crazy talk? Not as crazy as you might believe. Besides, in 1903 they said powered flight would not be possible for a million years right? There's some heated discussion on this very subject going lol. RJ is badass, look at his current levels (2.7 I think). I'm just saying, what would you not do to save someone you care about? This is a viable scientific topic that could save a lot of people if it could be perfected. Please, lets try not to turn this into a flame war.

 

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/9401832/

[Meliane]

I didn't mean to flame you.

 

While I do think it is kind of silly to compare airplane flight with putting a severed head on someone else's beheaded body, I will let you have your say since I really don't think this will happen in our lifetime, whether through lack of research because of ethical questions or just because of the impossibly intricate nature of the problem of attaching a set of neurons inside a head to the bottom half of someone else's neurons inside the body. Not to mention the question of who would be the first surgeons and patients to attempt the bodysnatcher surgery.

 

But I digress.

 

As for how far I would go to save someone I love, I have very definite limits. We're all going to die someday, and I think boundaries are necessary.

[TheoryMan]

As for how far I would go to save someone I love' date=' I have very definite limits. We're all going to die someday, and I think boundaries are necessary.[/quote']

 

Yikes.

[Meliane]

Everyone has limits even if they are set pretty far back. For instance, if someone came in to the nursery and ordered me to kill 10 babies with my bare hands or they'd shoot my husband, I think my husband would prefer I let him die rather than do something like that.

 

Now I'm not comparing that to what you are talking about, but I think when you have to choose between something you feel is disgusting or morally wrong versus letting someone go, it's not fair to insist that I swallow my bile and choose evil.

[TheoryMan]

Everyone has limits even if they are set pretty far back. For instance' date=' if someone came in to the nursery and ordered me to kill 10 babies with my bare hands or they'd shoot my husband, I think my husband would prefer I let him die rather than do something like that. [/quote'] I agree with that 100%, but a monkey is hardly a baby, and you don't have to kill babies to get stem cells now days.

 

Now I'm not comparing that to what you are talking about' date=' but I think when you have to choose between something you feel is disgusting or morally wrong versus letting someone go, it's not fair to insist that I swallow my bile and choose evil.[/quote']

In this case, there's nothing evil, but I do agree about having some limits depending on how much you love the person. (John Q for example)

[Meliane]

Well, monkeys are one thing, Theoryman. All my ranting was about the possibility of doing a head transplant on a human being. There's a difference between a monkey head kept alive and attempting an entire-body transplant. Doing a transplant like that is going to have ethical questions that need to be discussed. People already have ethical concerns about smaller things. And I really don't think it will be physically possible. But who knows? In the future, nanosurgery and splicing together neurons may be small potatoes.

 

Kinda like flying an airplane. :P

[Myyrth]

Star Wars Nerd Info Found Here.

 

Couldn't they just do it the good old fashioned way, send him to the Ba'moor Monks of Tattoine and they'll put his brain in a bubble attached to mechanical spider legs.

[icspots]

Star Wars Nerd Info Found Here.

 

Couldn't they just do it the good old fashioned way' date=' send him to the Ba'moor Monks of Tattoine and they'll put his brain in a bubble attached to mechanical spider legs.[/quote']

 

You're a dork. But then again I'm on an internet forum telling you that, and......... I knew exactly what you were saying. Okay so we're dorks! :P

[the dude]

question: the monkey head, it's not conscious, right? that would be beyond creepy.

 

that's some weird and wild stuff. interesting topic man.

 

now, here's the real question: when will they be able to hook my head up to a robot body?

[Myyrth]

Just like the Cymeks of Dune! W00t! I want a super powered robot body.

 

Wait.. disembodied brains seem everywhere in the Sci Fi I read these days.

 

Yet cymeks really take the cake. RJ as a cymek would be awsome, not only could he write his books but he'd have missle launchers as well!

[HoppyQ]

If they actually, eventually become this advanced then at that point I would think it would be just as easy for them to transplant the brain rather than the head. Then they can clone you, omiting any undesired genes, keep the clone in a vegatative state until it reaches a desireable age and then clone you into your own body. There wouldn't be any concerns about organ rejection since it would be the same DNA. An thus, ethical concerns aside, you have virtual immortality.

[O.o Jack K5 o.O]

spine. you figure out how to reconnect it, and they'll start doing it.

[TheoryMan]

spine. you figure out how to reconnect it' date=' and they'll start doing it.[/quote']

 

Did you read that article I posted on the research they are doing? They can already use stemcells to form a bridge to reconnect the nerves in a spinal cord. They've already done this with mice. Just a matter of time until they do it on humans. I think this technology is a lot closer than some people think.

 

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/9401832/

[Myyrth]

Considering 95% of all information known about the brain was learned in the last 10 years or so yeah.. the future still holds soo much more.

[richglennon]

I think you have a plausible question. Two years ago, my sister had a double lung transplant for CF. She was pretty much on death's door when this happened. I just remember when she was born in 1977, they said, life expectancy 11-13 years. Then new drugs. Then more new drugs. Then transplants. She is now 31 and living a great life with an outlook of maybe over 50.

 

So my point is this, 25 years ago, you died. Now, you have an outlook of 3 to 4 times that. And I am talking lungs. (Incredible procedure due to alot of neuro and capillary connections) Can you imagine what they will be able to do in 20 years from now? They almost have the total human brain function model mapped out. It's just a matter of mapping and connecting.

 

Conclusion, I want a monkey's head. Would be great at my wake.