How to get ahead?

[something daft already!!]

2017 is penned to be the first time a head transplant will be officially attempted.

Italian neurosurgeon Dr. Sergio Canavero is firm on his promise to deliver the first human head transplant to the world. He says a Chinese man will be the first patient in 2017, and now all he needs is approval and funding. Other experts are highly sceptical.

https://futurism.com/worlds-first-human-head-transplant-will-take-place-in-2017/

I imagine all sorts of problems would arise. Even if it was successful, your body would be different so doing stuff would need to be learnt all over again. Could you pop a man's head on a woman's body or vice versa? Would it be a bit like Worzel Gummidge? A head for every occasion? Surely there are too many connections to the brain to reconnect? It won't be like wiring up a plug surely.

 

[Sliver]

As far as I know it's not yet possible to re-attach the spinal chord and not have the patient be a paraplegic afterwards. This topic came up a year or two back on here and I found a paper online about the procedure, which has already been done to a monkey (The monkey only survived a few days) and that paper was quite explicit that it couldn't be done yet on human patients.

 

[Sliver]

Here's the article on the monkey I was referring to. They kept it alive for 20 hours after the procedure. Also they did not connect the spinal chord, so even if the monkey was kept alive and nursed back to health, it would have been paralysed from the neck down.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/sci...lly-carried-out-on-monkey-claims-surgeon.html

 

[Hunders]

Surely it's a body transplant.

 

[IronWarrior]

I guess when they finally get it to work, transsexuals will finally get the bodys they think they want.

 

[UTmaniac]

Living heads in jars, like in Futurama, sounds like it is a step closer!

 

[Itchytrigg]

A+ for thread title.

 

[jay0906]

A+ for thread title.

This soo much!

 

[SlyReaper]

A+ for thread title.

OP was skullful with his pun.

 

[Angilion]

I was expecting a thread about hats.

I think the OP's questions aren't really answerable because there isn't any relevant data. I'd speculate that if it was possible to do the physical joining then over some period of time the person's brain would adapt to new inputs and form a new "map" for their new body, restoring the ability to control their own body and restoring senses such as proprioception, but I don't know how they'd function in the meantime. I'd speculate that it would take weeks of constant medical care and then months of planned training before they could live safely without a carer. Human brains are highly adaptable, but there are limits.

Although since we're talking fantasy medical procedures, we could just add all that as a sort of firmware update. Get new body, upload the necessary data into the old brain and there you go. Almost instant complete adaptation to new body. May as well add custom bodies to spec as well. If technology advances that much, it would probably be possible to make bodies. There have already been experiments with making organs in a lab. And why restrict yourself? 7' tall? With a tail? And fur? OK, why not? Give us a couple of weeks to grow the body. Mind of a human, body of a gorilla? Probably an off the shelf job, have it done this afternoon.

 

[~>Dg<~]

it actually quite scary if you start thinking into the future and what will happen once the tech is here.

old guy dying ? kill a younger person take body.hes nothing to lose your head is everything.if you actually think about it its only the brain really needed.

 

[Angilion]

it actually quite scary if you start thinking into the future and what will happen once the tech is here.

old guy dying ? kill a younger person take body.hes nothing to lose your head is everything.if you actually think about it its only the brain really needed.

I think that's unlikely. Unless the future gets really bad, that would be wildly illegal and very easily proven. I think that if technology was advanced enough for the head/body swap procedure to be easy enough for it to be done by people willing to be an accomplice to murder with an extremely high chance of being convicted, technology would be advanced enough to grow bodies (which is probably easier than a head/body swap). Old guy dying? Life support while a new body is grown from his own cells. Old guy dying, not enough time to grow a new copy of his own body? Use an off the shelf body for the time being. Even if the old guy in question is fine with murdering people, that would be a better course of action for them.

 

[~>Dg<~]

money would be the outcome wouldnt it.which is more expensive or affordable.

 

[asim18]

I hope they live stream it and/or make a good documentary. It would be very interesting to see even if he only stays conscious for only a couple of seconds. But I doubt he will regain consciousness.

 

[something daft already!!]

Supposed to be happening next month.

http://observer.com/2017/04/dr-sergio-canavero-head-transplant/

For years, Italian surgeon Dr. Sergio Canavero has been planning to attempt to perform the world’s first head transplant and proposed that it would take place in December 2017, garnering immense media attention and criticism.

 

[Nitefly]

No pressure on that operation then.

 

[VincentHanna]

This is an old Monkey Island joke.

 

[Mysterae_]

A+ for thread title.

Downgraded to a B+, "How to get head" would have got more hits!

 

[Mysterae_]

On a serious note, if this transplant is successful and the operation improves/simplifies in a few years, would anybody still be willing to carry a donor card?

 

[danielanthony]

I think a Ghost in the Shell type situation is more likely in 50+ years time.