4 ms·

Scientists can now keep brains alive without a body

25 points by startupflix 8y ago

lawlessone 8y ago
>What happens when you wake up inside of an environment of complete sensory-deprivation? If scientists determine that ‘normal’ brain activity can continue outside of the body, by EKG for example, is it a form of unlawful imprisonment to keep someone “alive” in that condition without their expressed consent? Well this is just disturbing. a real life purgatory.
- otempomores 8y ago
  Attach to every input nerve a wire.. Add a neural net that takes the general activity and pleasure as weight and voila a flight dream orgasm.
- vixen99 8y ago
  Sometimes even consent doesn't work very well. Roald Dahl described just this situation (for a human) back in 1959 in this story: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_and_Mary_(short_story) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_and_Mary_(short_story)
- Hoasi 8y ago
  Perhaps they would need to send false sensory stimuli to emulate a ghost-like body illusion and maintain the isolated brain in an induced state of normalcy.
pmx 8y ago
This is truly nightmare material. I shudder to think how this could be used to extract information from someone once the tech progresses to where it's possible to communicate with these brains.
- gnode 8y ago
  I don't really see what impact this has on our ability to extract information from a person's brain. We can already stick brain-computer interfaces into a brain while it's attached to the rest of a body. The significance of this technology combined with BCIs is in my opinion positive; that people may be able to have a meaningful conscious existence without a body, beyond their natural death.
- jbob2000 8y ago
  I think we’d soon find out that a brain without a body operates very differently than when the brain is in the body. The brain relies on the body’s sensory organs for much of its decisions, how can it compute things when these are removed? And also - if we managed to extract data from a brain, could we hold someone guilty for what we pull out? Would the brain say different things than the mouth? Which one is correct?
gremlinsinc 8y ago
Could they put the brain in a cyborg body...and extend life ad infinitum that way? Seems to me this might be the ticket to immortality.. Way better than downloading your brain, just move it to an indestructible vessel.
- gnode 8y ago
  > put the brain in a cyborg body Or better yet, an underground vault, connected to the Internet. Our brain is our most valuable possession; it seems silly to carry it around with us if we didn't need to.
- gremlinsinc 8y ago
  If this were Reddit that'd earn gold. Brilliant idea. I mean the brain is what we are essentially... If we just ditched the bodies and stored our brains forever, my mind is blown by this. This would be a great company to start, would probably get tons of funding by sv too. We could still experience life especially if we can create bodies that feel like human ones. Even immortals could get hot by a bus, but not if the brain is miles away in a nuclear bunker...

25 points by startupflix 8y ago

>What happens when you wake up inside of an environment of complete sensory-deprivation? If scientists determine that ‘normal’ brain activity can continue outside of the body, by EKG for example, is it a form of unlawful imprisonment to keep someone “alive” in that condition without their expressed consent? Well this is just disturbing. a real life purgatory.

otempomores 8y ago
Attach to every input nerve a wire.. Add a neural net that takes the general activity and pleasure as weight and voila a flight dream orgasm.
vixen99 8y ago
Sometimes even consent doesn't work very well. Roald Dahl described just this situation (for a human) back in 1959 in this story: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_and_Mary_(short_story) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_and_Mary_(short_story)
Hoasi 8y ago
Perhaps they would need to send false sensory stimuli to emulate a ghost-like body illusion and maintain the isolated brain in an induced state of normalcy.

pmx 8y ago

This is truly nightmare material. I shudder to think how this could be used to extract information from someone once the tech progresses to where it's possible to communicate with these brains.

gnode 8y ago
I don't really see what impact this has on our ability to extract information from a person's brain. We can already stick brain-computer interfaces into a brain while it's attached to the rest of a body. The significance of this technology combined with BCIs is in my opinion positive; that people may be able to have a meaningful conscious existence without a body, beyond their natural death.
jbob2000 8y ago
I think we’d soon find out that a brain without a body operates very differently than when the brain is in the body. The brain relies on the body’s sensory organs for much of its decisions, how can it compute things when these are removed? And also - if we managed to extract data from a brain, could we hold someone guilty for what we pull out? Would the brain say different things than the mouth? Which one is correct?

gremlinsinc 8y ago

Could they put the brain in a cyborg body...and extend life ad infinitum that way? Seems to me this might be the ticket to immortality.. Way better than downloading your brain, just move it to an indestructible vessel.

gnode 8y ago
> put the brain in a cyborg body Or better yet, an underground vault, connected to the Internet. Our brain is our most valuable possession; it seems silly to carry it around with us if we didn't need to.
gremlinsinc 8y ago
If this were Reddit that'd earn gold. Brilliant idea. I mean the brain is what we are essentially... If we just ditched the bodies and stored our brains forever, my mind is blown by this. This would be a great company to start, would probably get tons of funding by sv too. We could still experience life especially if we can create bodies that feel like human ones. Even immortals could get hot by a bus, but not if the brain is miles away in a nuclear bunker...