Totalitarianist

-Every potential indication of preservation of mental function of the transplanted brain of the Rhesus Monkey in the resulting preparation of the experiment that was conducted by the distinguished scientist Robert White, wherein the brain of the aforementioned subhuman primate was successfully transplanted in its entirety to the soma of another animal, were indicated.

-Grafts of embryonic brain from non-human animals, such as the rodent, can be transplanted with success to the brain of an animal of the same species.

HeatherD

Could you please cite relevent journals for both of these claims?

Totalitarianist

I cannot remember the source of absolutely everything I read. I read at least three books per day, not to mention numerous essays and the contents internet webpages.

The first experiment was conducted by Robert White. I am sure his name can be easily found by means of a good search engine, scil., google.com.

The second is, as you know, common knowledge.

HeatherD

Well just because you can't remember the source of everything your read doesn't mean you can't find documentation that supports a thread you started.

Okay, I'll bite, I'll do some of your leg-work.

Brain Transplants

According to this article, the brain would still function but the body would be quadriplegic because they can't connect the spinal cord nerves. Basically the body is just there to pump blood to the brain. That's dead weight:

Monkey Head Transplants

Also this article pretty much sums up my opinions:

It also lists some further references.

But given enough time, it will probably done successfully, even if society deems it unethical. The question someone else brought up was (paraphrased): if medical science advances to the point where the brain can be kept alive indefinitely, what's the point of brain transplants? By then we will probably be able to keep all cells alive indefinitely and your horribly complicated scheme of cloning, brain transplants and brain regeneration will just be science fiction nonsense.

Dr. Richard White aka Dr. Frankenstein

Totalitarianist

This body we live in is disgusting. After the age of nine, the generality of us become ugly and disgusting physically, if not psychologically (indicating the close parallel between mind and body). We must have younger bodies. Why do women invariably try to look younger than they actually are by wearing face paint, by fasting, by getting face lifts, by modifying their hair colour, etc., had it not been the case that they actually wanted to be younger? Indeed, it makes perfect sense! We all want to look younger. Unless you are like myself, after puberty, your skin becomes ugly and oily, your face develops and becomes ugly thereby -- in short, you lose your lovely, youthful appearance, whose beauty is celebrated in all cultures. This is what we want.

HeatherD

So, this is what it's all about, isn't it? This is what you want, not all of us.

You hate your body and appearance. Well many of us do but clones and brain transplants won't change that. The clone will still have all the human frailties and physical problems of the original. Unless you plan to go through a dangerous and lengthy operation every 10 years or so, you'll have to come to terms with being human.

Now if you could transplant your mind into a fully functional android, a la "Mr. Data" you might just achieve this immortality withought the "disgusting" aspects of humanity.

Personally, I like some of the less "clean" aspects of the human body. A "perfect" android body would be terribly uninteresting.

Totalitarianist

Actually, that is not the case. I fear what my body will become in the future -- say, in twenty years.

What is more important than my disgust for post-pubescent human bodies in general is the transplantion of the minds of great men, such as myself, and perhaps a few others -- namely great scientists and philosophers -- only for the transplanted brain's intellectual eminence; not anything else. The great man ought to be rewarded, in my perspective, as a benefactor of mankind, and not for his money, or for his ardent desire for a child's frame. That desire will be consummated if he exhibits a considerable degree of intellectual preeminence, particularly of or relating to the superior disciplines; scil., (in order of greatness) 1) mathematics, 2) science, 3) philosophy.

Herman Hedning

OK, I'll bite: Please tell me, o man of many personalities, a.k.a. Trebaxian Vir, a.k.a. Lenin, a.k.a. Lady Anoteros, what it is that makes you so great? Have you perhaps made some brilliant scientific discovery that is going to change mankids future for ever? Or maybe your superior intelligence has made a profound philosophical breakthrough that overshadows all previous thought? I really want to know.

HeatherD

I don't know, you seem to have made it pretty clear that you aren't happy now:

Yes, beauty is celebrated in many cultures, almost too much. In other cultures, old age, wisdom and experience are celebrated.

Totalitarianist

If we consider my existence in not a manner relative to temporal or spatial coordinates, but rather as a kink in the dialectical process, then yes. For what I shall do in the future is attributable to me, when it is conceived that only Being and Totality exists, and that what I am in both the past and the future is what defines me, and not myself at the present moment, or any given moment in which my body is present. Myself in relation to everything else independant of space and time is what ought to be considered, or, which comes to the same thing ironically, myself in every potential and actual moment in space and time. The short answer (again), therefore, is yes.