111–120 of 207 posts
If this technology pans out, and there doesn't seem to be anything fundamental against it, the future will be very different from what I imagined. Medical treatment, space travel and exploration, even retirement may have gotten a lot more interesting.
Rodent studies routinely use whole brain and slice tissues for long term neuro-experimentation [0]. You can keep slices alive for days on end, if you're careful [1]. Is it just that it's a whole pig brain that they used these tried and true techniques with? Ischemia isn't something to laugh at, it's very tough to deal with. But the 'ethical' issues have long been put to bed, we've been doing this since 1951 [2]
[0] https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/28744893
[1] https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/9914290
[2] McIlwain, H., Buchel, L. & Cheshire, J. D. The inorganic phosphate and phosphocreatine of Brain especially during metabolism in vitro. Biochem. J. 48, 12–20 (1951).
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Is it really that weird to not have "enemies"? There I people I wouldn't hang out with or wouldn't work with again, but I don't think I'd consider them enemies.
I think it's more weird to have enemies.
If you are a person of color, white supremacists are your enemy, even if you have never personally met them.
Etc.
Your remark comes across to me like "I live an extremely privileged and cushy life and I think that's completely the norm. I'm not interested in understanding the reality of people for whom that's not the norm."
Imagine donating your body to science and then waking up in a lab as a brain in a vat. "A Living Soul" by P. C. Jersild is amazing sci-fi book exploring this. https://www.amazon.com/Living-Norvik-Press-English-Swedish/d... https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/P._C._Jersild
I was thinking of the Bobiverse- have your head preserved for reanimation when future technology allows, only to have it declared a non-person and sold to a corporation which digitizes your brain and puts it in a satellite... https://www.amazon.com/We-Are-Legion-Bob-Bobiverse/dp/B01L08...
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Strongly agreed. The "what if they wake me up to torture me" scenarios seem like wild catastrophizing to me - if someone has the political power and resources to develop special brain-torture gear, rez me, and keep me alive so they can torture me, they have the political power and resources to kidnap me and torture me with knives and fire as long as they want. It'd probably even be easier for them to do it to my phys…
Given enough time, anything with a non-zero probability of happening will eventually happen, and when you're dealing with the prospect of immortality, "enough time" is a given. Even if the optimistic scenario is true for your first 100 "rezzes", the 101st civilization that takes over after the 100th collapses might not be so nice. EDITED TO ADD: Moreover "the kinds of irrationalities that lead a civilization to do th…
>a specially designed liquid round the brain, which contained a synthetic blood to carry oxygen and drugs to slow or reverse the death of brain cells. I had no idea humanity achieved synthetic blood. This is from the study: >a haemoglobin-based, acellular, non-coagulative, echogenic, and cytoprotective perfusate that promotes recovery from anoxia Am I the only one excited by what viable synthetic blood might mean for…
Or you can make it yourself per: http://www.alzet.com/products/guide_to_use/cfs_preparation.h...
Artificial blood is way trickier, but there are a lot of advancements being made. It's really exciting!
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Is it really that weird to not have "enemies"? There I people I wouldn't hang out with or wouldn't work with again, but I don't think I'd consider them enemies.
It's very weird to think that people would even care enough about a dead person to single out your brain for "payback". Even weirder to think that these people would somehow be in power.
Imagine donating your body to science and then waking up in a lab as a brain in a vat. "A Living Soul" by P. C. Jersild is amazing sci-fi book exploring this. https://www.amazon.com/Living-Norvik-Press-English-Swedish/d... https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/P._C._Jersild
There's a festival every year that is pretty popular in town about 'Frozen Dead Guy'. They have special beer, ice-cream, coffin races, a polar-bear swim, frozen salmon tosses, and a Mr. & Mrs. Dead Guy.
I've done the daytime tour and helped stack dry-ice on the guy. Honestly, he looks like Ötzi the Ice Man now.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frozen_Dead_Guy_Days
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> It'd actually be fantastic [...] Either my brain was chosen as a test, [...] or I'm part of a follow-up trial or large-scale roll-out Or your enemies took power, and when they were going through the vats for payback they picked yours (along with many others). If you think you have no enemies, or that you know them all personally, you are better than me.
Is it really that weird to not have "enemies"? There I people I wouldn't hang out with or wouldn't work with again, but I don't think I'd consider them enemies.
You made the assumption that I considered them enemies, or that they would even know who I am. If I am an identifiable member of the wrong community, social group, or race from the point of view of the mob in power, I don't have to consider them my enemy in order for them to see me (or my family, or friends) as one. Do you want to contemplate the possibility of genocides, of which we have seen plenty in the last 30 years, being replaced by "vaticides"? Because once the technology allows it, it will happen.
I've lived through this kind of historic upheaval once already; I know that of which I speak. The point I'm making is that any new technology can and will eventually be used by the wrong people for the wrong reasons, and that the likelihood for that to happen is directly proportional to its potential for good. We better make sure that potential good is really in balance with the potential bad before we commit to bringing it to life (pun intended).
Freezing your head might be good idea. If one day you could simulate a braina and scan a brain in sufficient detail just freezing might be enough to keep sufficient detail. Who you are must be in chemistry of your brain not in the electricity because you are same person after epileptic seizure as before.