So If A Brain Transplant Becomes Possible

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[ARCHIVED THREAD] - So If A Brain Transplant Becomes Possible

Posted: 3/10/2010 12:14:25 PM EDT

Will the recipient become the identity of the donor or his pre transplant self?

Posted: 3/10/2010 12:16:09 PM EDT

[#1]

really?

Posted: 3/10/2010 12:16:33 PM EDT

[#2]

I don't know about that, but I do know, there are lots of candidates for it, who post on here.

Posted: 3/10/2010 12:16:57 PM EDT

[#3]

Quoted:
I don't know about that, but I do know, there are lots of candidates for it, who post on here.

+1

Posted: 3/10/2010 12:17:02 PM EDT

[#4]

Quoted:
I don't know about that, but I do know, there are lots of candidates for it, who post on here.

Posted: 3/10/2010 12:18:21 PM EDT

[#5]

I got dibs on Bill Gate's brain...Not for the money...but I would really like to what the fuck Windows is doing some of the time...

Posted: 3/10/2010 12:18:49 PM EDT

[#6]

Philosophers have been debating this issue since someone came up with the idea of a brain transplant.

I say the identity is in the brain––the personality, the memories––but objective reasoning can argue the other side as well.

Posted: 3/10/2010 12:19:15 PM EDT

[#7]

depends on where your conscientiousness is.

Posted: 3/10/2010 12:19:28 PM EDT

[#8]

What if you switch sexs... What if you never move your brain to another body and keep it external who are you then?

Posted: 3/10/2010 12:19:51 PM EDT

[#9]

It would be a body transplant. All of the memories, knowledge and consciousness are contained in the brain.

Posted: 3/10/2010 12:25:56 PM EDT

[#10]

If the brain retains personality and knowledge then it will be you in a different body....now perfect brain transplants and cloning at the same time and we are good to go....what I could do with my knowledge in an 18 yr old body....

Posted: 3/10/2010 12:26:13 PM EDT

[#11]

you would be self aware as your previous self but just be in a different body.

so it would be possible to live as long as your brain holds up.

Posted: 3/10/2010 12:27:08 PM EDT

[#12]

Quoted:

If the brain retains personality and knowledge then it will be you in a different body....now perfect brain transplants and cloning at the same time and we are good to go....what I could do with my knowledge in an 18 yr old body....

Oh hells yes!

Posted: 3/10/2010 12:30:32 PM EDT

[#13]

Not if you could transfer the data from somebody's brain to a thumb drive, then reflash the new brain with the other brain's data.

Posted: 3/10/2010 12:41:06 PM EDT

[#14]

"Beans motherfucker, do you eat them"?

Posted: 3/10/2010 12:41:56 PM EDT

[#15]

Quoted:
Not if you could transfer the data from somebody's brain to a thumb drive, then reflash the new brain with the other brain's data.

caprica?

just remember to make a backup copy

Posted: 3/10/2010 12:43:20 PM EDT

[#16]

So, um what exactly is this donor dieing of that their body in available for a transplant?

Posted: 3/10/2010 12:46:51 PM EDT

[#17]

Sooooooo if a male brain gets put in a female body, and has sex does that mean "it" is gay?

Posted: 3/10/2010 12:48:01 PM EDT

[#18]

Perhaps they could take all presidential canidates, mix the brains up in a tumbler, and replant them in different bodies. Then someone could get elected on qualifications instead of color. When someone tried to play the race card or sex card WHAM ball peen hammer on the soft spot!

Posted: 3/10/2010 12:48:09 PM EDT

[#19]

Quoted:

Sooooooo if a male brain gets put in a female body, and has sex does that mean "it" is gay?

Only if you fuck dudes.

Posted: 3/10/2010 12:48:44 PM EDT

[#20]

i had a penis transplant from john holmes

Posted: 3/10/2010 12:49:21 PM EDT

[#21]

Quoted:
So, um what exactly is this donor dieing of that their body in available for a transplant?

Some terminal disease that puts them in a coma for 2 months before death.

Posted: 3/10/2010 12:50:13 PM EDT

[#22]

Quoted:

Quoted:
Sooooooo if a male brain gets put in a female body, and has sex does that mean "it" is gay?

Only if you fuck dudes.

....but if you did girls then that would make you a male lesbian

Posted: 3/10/2010 12:50:28 PM EDT

[#23]

Never accept a brain donation from someone named Abby Normal.

Posted: 3/10/2010 12:53:22 PM EDT

[#24]

Quoted:
Never accept a brain donation from someone named Abby Normal.

This.

Try to get one from Hans Delbrooke first..

Posted: 3/10/2010 12:53:40 PM EDT

[#25]

Quoted:
Will the recipient become the identity of the donor or his pre transplant self?

For tax purposes the IRS considers all brain donors/recipients as separate entities.

The good news is you can stuff both returns in the same envelope, which saves on postage.

Posted: 3/10/2010 12:55:03 PM EDT

[#26]

Quoted:
So, um what exactly is this donor dieing of that their body in available for a transplant?

Brain tumor?

Posted: 3/10/2010 1:03:56 PM EDT

[#27]

Quoted:

Quoted:
If the brain retains personality and knowledge then it will be you in a different body....now perfect brain transplants and cloning at the same time and we are good to go....what I could do with my knowledge in an 18 yr old body....

Oh hells yes!

Until there's a whole bunch of 20-somethings running around with Alzheimer's.

Posted: 3/10/2010 1:04:33 PM EDT

[#28]

It's been experimented on monkeys before, head transplants actually and it's thought that the brain does not cause rejection problems that other organ transplants do. However the impossible task of reconnecting the spinal nerve makes it still unfeasible, the monkeys did live several days with basically just one brain head and all hooked into another body's circulatory system.

Posted: 3/10/2010 1:07:40 PM EDT

[#29]

Robert Heinlein wrote a book about this called "I Will Fear No Evil."

Posted: 3/10/2010 1:15:12 PM EDT

[#30]

Quoted:

Robert Heinlein wrote a book about this called "I Will Fear No Evil."

Good lord that was an awful book.

I say this as a huge Heinlein fan.

Posted: 3/10/2010 1:16:21 PM EDT

[#31]

Quoted:
It would be a body transplant. All of the memories, knowledge and consciousness are contained in the brain.

^ this.

If a "liver transplant" is you getting someone else's liver, then a "body transplant" is you getting someone else's body. "Brain transplant" wouldn't make any sense unless you are somehow planning to overwrite the new brain with the contents of the old one. (And while a "body transplant" is science fiction, "brain transplant" is currently in the realm of pure fantasy. We don't even have enough science to speculate on the possibility of such a thing.)

The more interesting question is how long until we can take someone with a failing body and basically replace them entirely (other than the brain) with artificial systems. Cyborgs!

Posted: 3/10/2010 1:21:26 PM EDT

[#32]

Quoted:

Quoted:
Sooooooo if a male brain gets put in a female body, and has sex does that mean "it" is gay?

Only if you fuck dudes.

Problem is your "male" brain would then be awash in female hormones. So you'd probably want to fuck a dude. Unless you were married to him, of course.

Posted: 3/10/2010 1:25:08 PM EDT

[#33]

Define the donor. You have a brain dead but intact and healthy body, and an active brain but completely paralyzed and decaying body. Which is the donor? One is donating the brain the other the body.

The brain would be the identity, but the identity likely would not recognize him/herself in the mirror, or the back of his/her hand.

O.K here's a good one. You have a transgender identity in the brain and the opposite sex as a donor. Would the brain then feel complete and normal after the transplant?

Posted: 3/10/2010 1:35:54 PM EDT

[#34]

This thread is

Posted: 3/10/2010 1:38:09 PM EDT

[#35]

If they start doing brain transplants I wounder if anyone will try to make a chick who is hot and smart at the same time?

Posted: 3/10/2010 1:40:02 PM EDT

[#36]

the "data" in the brain is calibrated to the body in which it was collected. the brain is not a plug-and-play component of the nervous system. a transplant would exhibit catastrophic failure WAY upstream of "identity".

this is not the sort of thing that a dollop of stem cells would solve, either.

it seems to me that one would be better off grafting a new body onto an existing nervous system.

<–– card-carrying cognitive scientist

Posted: 3/10/2010 1:53:56 PM EDT

[#37]

Quoted:
the "data" in the brain is calibrated to the body in which it was collected. the brain is not a plug-and-play component of the nervous system. a transplant would exhibit catastrophic failure WAY upstream of "identity".

this is not the sort of thing that a dollop of stem cells would solve, either.

it seems to me that one would be better off grafting a new body onto an existing nervous system.

<–– card-carrying cognitive scientist

If medical science is sufficient for a brain transplant, it's probably sufficient to merely clone the "donor's" body and transplant his brain into the what is, genetically, his own body. There is a chance you might actually get that to work.

Posted: 3/10/2010 1:59:17 PM EDT

[#38]

Quoted:

Quoted:
the "data" in the brain is calibrated to the body in which it was collected. the brain is not a plug-and-play component of the nervous system. a transplant would exhibit catastrophic failure WAY upstream of "identity".

this is not the sort of thing that a dollop of stem cells would solve, either.

it seems to me that one would be better off grafting a new body onto an existing nervous system.

<–– card-carrying cognitive scientist

If medical science is sufficient for a brain transplant, it's probably sufficient to merely clone the "donor's" body and transplant his brain into the what is, genetically, his own body. There is a chance you might actually get that to work.

Of course it will be possible at some point. And when it is, sign me up!

Posted: 3/10/2010 2:50:24 PM EDT

[#39]

Quoted:

Quoted:
the "data" in the brain is calibrated to the body in which it was collected. the brain is not a plug-and-play component of the nervous system. a transplant would exhibit catastrophic failure WAY upstream of "identity".

this is not the sort of thing that a dollop of stem cells would solve, either.

it seems to me that one would be better off grafting a new body onto an existing nervous system.

<–– card-carrying cognitive scientist

If medical science is sufficient for a brain transplant, it's probably sufficient to merely clone the "donor's" body and transplant his brain into the what is, genetically, his own body. There is a chance you might actually get that to work.

cloning a new body would necessitate sinking biomass and time into a second nervous system; need nerves to enervate muscles to grow bone to arrive at body

what i'm suggesting is graduated replacement of muscle tissue with "fresh meat" and meticulously splicing in the "classic" nerve fibers. muscle can be grown independently in the lab, and targeted physical therapy ought to be able to restore/establish motor control one group at a time with less stress to the system than plugging a tangle of green nerves into a veteran brain.

Posted: 3/10/2010 2:56:21 PM EDT

[#40]

Quoted:
I got dibs on Bill Gate's brain...Not for the money...but I would really like to what the fuck Windows is doing some of the time...

Then you could the whole thing!

Posted: 3/10/2010 3:06:01 PM EDT

[#41]

Just don't give me Abby Normal's brain.

Posted: 3/10/2010 3:15:49 PM EDT

[#42]

Any mild amount of research into what brain damage can do to a person would make it seem pretty logical that the brain would carry the original identity of the person.