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All I can say is 'Damn!'

Posted: Wed Feb 20, 2008 11:09 pm
by Thilindel
I feel really bad for the poor little critters who lived in this time era. This is one video/experiment I'd never seen before: It's almost 10 minutes long, totally worth watching.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oHLNmw0vHm4

Posted: Thu Feb 21, 2008 2:08 am
by Kifle
Eh, seems cool, but I doubt it's real.

Posted: Thu Feb 21, 2008 7:09 am
by Corth

Posted: Thu Feb 21, 2008 7:16 am
by Corth
I'm intrigued by this topic. There is no reason why human head transplants could not occur right now. Given the choice between death and paralysis, most people would choose the latter. Soon enough they will be using stem cells to cure paralysis anyway. And with regard to Krauthammer's article.. he did not convince me how it would be so horrible to grow headless humans as body or organ donors.

Posted: Thu Feb 21, 2008 8:04 am
by Kegor
Immortality, or even elongation of human life, would create problems. Overpopulation being the most noteable of them even if we are only talking about 10% of the global population that might be able to afford such a proceedure. The rest would probably strive to distribute thier lifes rescources to affording this in a way similar to a retirement plan. If there is a reason we haven't heard more on the study of this, I think these are the most likely reasons. I suspect there are known ways to make humans live significantly longer than natural lifespans already, but the powers that be know that we aren't ready for that. It would be disastorous.

Posted: Thu Feb 21, 2008 2:56 pm
by Kifle
Jaznolg wrote:Immortality, or even elongation of human life, would create problems. Overpopulation being the most noteable of them even if we are only talking about 10% of the global population that might be able to afford such a proceedure. The rest would probably strive to distribute thier lifes rescources to affording this in a way similar to a retirement plan. If there is a reason we haven't heard more on the study of this, I think these are the most likely reasons. I suspect there are known ways to make humans live significantly longer than natural lifespans already, but the powers that be know that we aren't ready for that. It would be disastorous.


This assumes that people want to live forever... It seems to me that the only ones that would really care to do this are the upper class. Why would somebody working in a factory, the service industry, or retail ever want this? Why would a Hindi or Buddhist want this? Why would a Christian, Jew, or Muslim banking on heaven want this? Hell, why would an Athiest want this? The only answer I can come up with is that only if they are assured that they could live very comfortably until they choose to die.

I'm sorry, but if I'm middle management when I'm 65, do you think I'll be opting to get a new body so I can prolong mediocrity? Seriously.

Regardless, the experiments, imo, were mainly Russian/Communist propaganda. There are a lot of reasons that the head would not act the way it did in that video if they were doing what they said they were.

Posted: Thu Feb 21, 2008 3:16 pm
by Corth
Jaznolg wrote:Immortality, or even elongation of human life, would create problems. Overpopulation being the most noteable of them even if we are only talking about 10% of the global population that might be able to afford such a proceedure. The rest would probably strive to distribute thier lifes rescources to affording this in a way similar to a retirement plan. If there is a reason we haven't heard more on the study of this, I think these are the most likely reasons. I suspect there are known ways to make humans live significantly longer than natural lifespans already, but the powers that be know that we aren't ready for that. It would be disastorous.


I don't doubt it would be a problem. Its one of those good kind of problems to have. Like, having too many quality starting pitchers. You do what you can to put yourself in a position to have such a problem, and then you deal with it. The human lifespan is a lot longer now than it was 50 or 100 years ago. I'm sure this is causing some problems... but I don't see anyone who is calling for the reversal of all progress in medical science. I don't see politicians advocating the liquidation of pharmeceutical companies. Etc.

It would seem to me that a full body transplant (more accurate than saying a head transplant, as your brain is you, the body is what is being replaced), which is actually currently a viable procedure, makes a lot of sense for a lot of people, CURRENTLY. Many cancer patients, for instance, might reasonably conclude that its better to be paralyzed from the neck down, than dead. Based on Dr. White's experiments, it would seem that such a procedure could be done right now with little to no brain damage. Its the ultimate cure for many terminal diseases. Especially in a few years when paralysis is a curable condition.

Posted: Thu Feb 21, 2008 3:18 pm
by Corth
Kifle,

Those experiments were not only legitimate, they were improved upon subsequently by a US scientist to the point that a monkey head transplanted onto a different body could remain alive indefinitiely with little to no brain damage during the procedure.

Posted: Thu Feb 21, 2008 6:43 pm
by Thilindel
When I first saw the video, all I could think about was Queen's 'Who Wants to Live Forever?' song .. Here's part 2 to the first video:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1fyjcjWX ... re=related

There's another part to this video, in which one dog is transplanted onto another. This was done repeatedly, but the main video unedited is in russian from 1954. This one here aired on National Geographic:


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oWxDE8F5 ... re=related


A HUGE sidenote is the impact on religion. The dog is completely dead in the 2nd part of the video regarding reanimation. So would a soul be trapped in the body at this point, or its head, or what? One of the dogs was dead for over 15 minutes as it was undisturbed. There was no oxygen, bloodflow, brain activity, etc. I would assume that this would maybe bring a point that a soul is more abstract than thought? Makes me think of medication or being drunk..intoxicated. You don't act the same, yet you are the very same person. So much philosophy as a result of science. Poor damned doggies though! Either way, it'd suck being a dog in Russia during those years.

Posted: Sat Feb 23, 2008 11:58 pm
by daggaz

Posted: Tue Feb 26, 2008 8:04 pm
by Llaaldara
I think I'm gonna hurl.